Album Review – Flight of the Conchords: Hee-larious and Tear-inducing Laughter!

Flight of the Conchords released their most recent album.

As many of you have figured out by now, I just can’t get enough of Bret and Jemaine these days. For starters, I just bought the first season and then had to purchase their new album. I took a trip up to Portland, ME yesterday and couldn’t wait to listen to my new CD. Having bought their most recent album (the release date, as I said in my first piece about them, was April 22, 2008). In fact, the album was so funny, I found myself ignoring the scenery.

It turns out, this CD, not surprisingly, is as equally as funny as the television show. In fact, I was so distracted from its hilarity – my face actually ached after listening to all the songs and laughing so hard – I had to turn it off for a while. You see, I’ve never been to Maine, and this is the time of year to go (it’s breathtakingly lush and devoid of humans, which is odd for New England). So after touring parts of Portland and Portsmouth, NH, I had to get my FOC fix.

Once the sun went down, and I was no longer driving, I had the pleasure of listening to the CD all over again. Of course, most of the songs were remade (indicated by “album version” next to the title of the piece), but are just as pleasing. As the sensitive reader can appreciate and understand, the songs are ingested by the ears in a way that is quite different from seeing them woven into the story line of each episode. (For those of you who have followed FOC for a while, you might be a little disappointed with this CD – it received mixed reviews . That’s not because the music was bad, but people were disappointed by the fact that a lot of it is their “old music.” If you’re a new fan, however, I highly recommend it).

If you haven’t bought this CD, go do it now! You won’t regret it. Word to the wise: if you’re on vacation, and want to enjoy scenery, I’d advise you to hold off on listening to this album until it’s dark and you’re through sight-seeing. Likewise, if you’re heading to a job interview, finding yourself in a new part of town, wait until official business time is over, then pop in “Business Time.”

Here is an annotated list of album’s songs and links to live versions from youtube:

1) Foux da fafa – an absolutely hee-larious and (naturally) parodic song, in which Bret and Jemaine sing about, oui, oui, baguettes, Bibliotheques, etdiscotheques (not in that order)

2) Inner city pressure – one of my favorites, a “remix” or, better yet, spoofed reincarnation of Pet Shop Boys’ “West End Girls“

3) Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros [feat. Rhymenocerous and the Hiphopopotamus] (Album Version) -furiously funny, hip-hop song

4) Think about it – “kids killin’ each other with knives and forks . . .” One of my favorite lines from this song. Enjoy a casio-sounding background music, little drum beats, and Jemaine bursting out in Barry White fashion.

5) Ladies in the world – the best about this piece, they praise HERMAPHRODITES! “Lady, man, lady!” Don’t forget, they’re hot, too.

6) Mutha’ uckas - as I already stated in my previous post(s), this hip-hop piece gets at censorship and blurbing out cuss words so well. What’s so great, Bret and Jemaine create that effect! At one point, Bret sounds like he’s choking from all the censoring.

7) The prince of parties – beautiful, Indian-inspired music, mixed (naturally) with a funny story line

Leggy Blonde [Featuring Rhys Darby] – childish lyrics inspire a type of puerile giggling

9) Robots – pokes fun at the robotic voice in Radiohead’s song

10) Boom – catchy little tune

11) A kiss is not a contract - instead of a girl being coerced into making out, we find a man (Bret is the primary vocalist for this cutesy song) feeling uncomfortable when a woman makes the advances

12) The most beautiful girl in the world - see my comments for “Sally“

13) Business Time – socks and sex. Aaaah, yes! It doesn’t get any sexier than that, particularly when they’re black socks, worn by Jemaine

14) Bowie – remarkable piece that really demonstrates their musical talent, along with their great senses of humor

15) Au revoir - super short (22 seconds), but ties the whole album together