Top Ten Songs from Cro's "Tru."
“tru.” is the third studio album by German rapper and producer Cro, released in 2017.It topped the German, Austrian and Swiss charts. As I write this, there have been no gold or platinum certifications for the album, it still being too new.
“tru.” received almost euphoric critical acclaim, many reviewers praising the artful and unique production and extraordinary musicality, the skillful songwriting and the personal and philosophical approach. The general consensus was that it is Cro’s greatest album to date and is likely to become his magnum opus - some even predicted it to become a game changer. The album's deluxe box edition was however widely panned, as it contained no new material other than a plastic mask only loosely resembling Cro’s trademark panda mask while costing more than twice as much as the regular album.
On “tru.”, Cro abandoned the carefree and lighthearted style from his previous albums, and his production and compositions became much more complex and diverse. Much of the album is a self-reflection of Cro as a person as well as as a famous artist, it often contrasts the topics of his previous music with personal experiences, and reveals very private and intimate situations and thoughts. Often, the mood is very meditative. Some other songs are clever twists on well known formulas, mostly that of love songs. The music is much less radio friendly than before, Cro having reduced the pop elements, while featuring more musical experiments and thought out concepts. Several of the songs have a slow pace, and use slight elements of trip hop or cyber hip hop. Cro also highlights his role as a producer by making use of instrumental parts.
Unlike his previous albums, "tru." has a few featured artists: Patrice, Wyclef Jean, Ivy Sole and Ace Tree.
The single “unendlichkeit” reached number 13 in the German charts and was certified gold, the other two singles “baum” and “tru.” were only minor successes. While the music videos from the album were relatively big hits on YouTube, the singles did not chart as highly as those from Cro’s previous releases, probably because they received much less airplay due to their experimental tone in music and lyrics.
"unendlichkeit" is my absolute favorite song of 2017, as much as "tru." is my favorite album. It is a prime example of how to execute a truly artful modern song. The song has such a powerful and moving melody and music that it radicaly blows away the boundaries of its genre. Lyrically, it explores the difference between fame and leaving a legacy. Ever since his debut album "Raop" Cro made it into the olymp of celebrities of his generation. Now he longs for something more everlasting than success. He now begins to question his life and what will be left of him when he leaves this world. Two versions exist of the song, the "main edit" on the album with a rapped verse, and the entirely sung video edit, both are featured on the premium edition abd are equally great.
Of course it wouldn't be me if I didn't have a mistake in the description: it only topped the German and Austrian charts, it peaked at number two in Switzerland.
"baum" has one of the greatest premises I have heard in a long time, and it is executed so perfectly. It is about Cro's car crashing into a tree, and several episodes of his life start flashing before his eyes in non-chronological order, it includes both good and bad times and consists entirely of extremely private moments, only some depict Cro in a good light. Cro also mentions how some of these moments seemed unimportant when they occurred, but are now meaningful to him.
The listening sample only contains the first few seconds - a friend calling Cro to come to a party while Cro is driving. About a second after the sample stops, the tires squeak, Cro curses and the music stops - Cro pants, only accompanied by his heart beat: "there is a tree. Think. Let me out. Too late. It's over. It's over? Well done. You'll see, I'll bite the dust because of me. Well, do it fast. I hope it won't hurt. I am scared. Oh god. Damn, will it hurt? Is it over yet? No. But at least I ...more
This song has one of the greatest twists in tone I heard in a long time. It starts out with a premise that may shock several feminists: Cro artificially creates his dream woman. It actually sounds like a novelty sound with a silly premise, as in this John Hughes movie "Weird Science". But then, in the final minute the tone gets much darker. Cro gets unsettled by the unrealistic perfection. There are no arguments or different opinions, she has no real identity of her own, no flaws or bumps, and Cro keeps on wondering if she really feels anything. He says all of what she does is real - but are her feelings? He tries to hack into her system to re-program her, but she leaves. The songs ends with a bleak line: Cro starts with experiment number 106, implying how often he already went through all of this.
This song stands out very much. With a length of 12:36 it is significantly longer than the rest - but Cro only raps on the first 4 and a half. The other 8 minutes are purely instrumental, Cro showing off his talent as a producer.
This song may please the average radio listener by far the most. The Spanish latin tone and poppy beat stands out of the record, and it also features a guest verse by Wyclef Jean. The song has a video, but wasn't released as a single. If it had, it might have been the album's most successful song.
Ardy from DatAdam pointed out that the album "tru." has several parallels to their 2016 album "Hydra 3D" (my favorite album of last year, while "tru." is of 2017), starting with the cover artwork, and yeah, this title song could have also been on "Hydra 3D", being a cyber hip hop song about authenticity using many anglicisms. But the rest of the album is too different. Cro doesn't use much autotune on other songs, and the topics, while very deep and personal, differ between the two releases. Nevertheless: "tru." is a great song that has many stylistic similarities to a truly great album and has the same level.
