Categories : Folk + Roots, Music Reviews, Rock + Pop.
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Rating: 2 / 5 Reviewer: Connor Turner |
If you have any sort of interest in either Canada’s Comedy Central or its American big brother The Comedy Network, you have probably already heard of satirical folk-rock duo Flight of Conchords. If you are one of their ravenous fans, you should probably just skip next few paragraphs and go watch their YouTube clips for the four hundredth time.
But the truth of the matter is Flight of the Concords’ quirky brand of faux-rockumentary humour works well on the TV or on the net, but fails miserably as a stand alone sonic entity.
Flight of the Conchords’ first proper disc is essentially a compilation of the tracks featured in their popular television show. While some of the tracks are hysterical in the context of the show, many of these songs are either uneventful or annoying within the confines of a good set of headphones. Songs such as ‘Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros’ and ‘Leggy Blonde’ are just boring; while the satirical ode to David Bowie is even more painful than Bowie’s choice of styling products in Labyrinth.
Not to completely discount the record – songs like ‘Most Beautiful Girl (in the Room)’ and ‘Business Time’ are laugh out loud funny and do create some memorable moments; but at the same time one has to notice the stark and obvious resemblances to Beck’s classic ode to a JC Penny cashier – ‘Jenny’ from the Midnight Vulture era. But besides these two bright spots, the rest of the record lacks any sort of lasting magic and feels like it’s missing the visual aspect to really enhance the punch line.
As an individual piece of work, a comedy record is a notoriously difficult beast to reign in. In most instances these sorts of projects turn into an extended one-shtick punch line, where a single listen is all that is truly warranted. The true challenge in releasing a comedy record lies in the ability to spin it into lasting and memorable joke. Unfortunately, Flight of the Conchords proves that the Kiwi duo needs the visuals to make their jokes really fly.
