DOTA - Adult + 1 Child (up to 12 years)

Dota is back with new songs - a new chapter that fits naturally into her existing catalogue, yet feels genuinely fresh, as if an unknown ingredient had turned up in the songwriting lab.

What's striking: this could just as easily be the very first DOTA record. Nothing you love about Dota is missing, but the music is even more minimalist, bouncier - the grown-ups would say more contrastive. The lyrics cut even more directly to the heart of the darkness, searching with even greater devotion, and somehow clearer even in the murky parts. It may well be a product of her deep engagement with the poetry of Mascha Kaléko, to whose musical realisation she dedicated two albums over the past three years.

DOTA - written in capitals for a reason, because the name stands for more than just Dota Kehr's lyrical self. It also names the community around her, in which the music has been taking shape for years: guitarist Jan Rohrbach, drummer Janis Görlich, keyboardist Patrick Reising and bassist Alexander Binder. Together with this band, Dota Kehr arranges the songs and records them. Together they write the DOTA formula on the board: every word means at least its own opposite, question marks everywhere, exclamation marks almost nowhere.

The first single "Einfach zu abgelenkt" plays the DOTA game to perfection. The guitar sits by a summer lake, the synth shimmers. The drums dance stop-and-go, Dota sings as if she has to leave any minute - about not being able to commit, and neither can anyone else. ADHD as a social diagnosis.

In "Kettenkarussell", one of those songs only DOTA can pull off - relaxed and tense at the same time, like a pensive rubber ball - she sings: "Time to spin around something else / That's fine, I can't stand the everyday." And the band grooves along, driving the singer as if to say: "One more round."

Question: what should songwriters be singing about in times like these?

Next question: what even are "times like these"?