SOUNDTRACK: KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD-Fishing for Fishies (2019).
The first of two albums released by KGATLW in 2019, Fishing for Fishies is a bluesy, boogie-filled record.
It opens with with two false starts. There’s the briefest sound of a sound like they’d recorded over another track but left it, then there’s a drum beat that hits a few and stops only to resume a few seconds later and starts the title song. “Fishing for Fishies” is a soft shuffling song with delicately whispered vocals and a bouncy melody. It’s super catchy and is followed by “Boogieman Sam” with its bouncy staccato guitar and then Ambrose’s wailing harmonica.
“The Bird Song” is a favorite on the record. Fun gently whispered lyrics and a remarkably catchy jazzy song. “Plastic Boogie” is loose blues song with a lot of people talking throughout, giving the whole thing a party atmosphere.
“Cruel Millennial” is sung by Ambrose. It’s a swinging boogie with a catchy chorus and some wailing harmonica soloing at the end. “Real’s Not Real” starts as a potentially heavy rocker but as the song proper starts, it shifts abruptly to a kind of mellow Beatles-y piano-pop song.
“This Thing” is a harmonica-fueled blues song with great big bouncy bass line. “Acarine” is an unusual song on the disc. It’s slower and moodier slow moody with whispered vocals and piercing harmonica. Although the last two and a half minutes are an instrumental jam with looping synths that sound like a sci-fi soundtrack.
“Cyboogie” ends the disc. It was the first singe off the album and it’s as catchy as anything. Who knew it was so much fun singing “boogie, boogie, boogie, boogie, boogie, boogie, boogie.” The buzzy bouncing synth is a great sound for this song and the cyber voice prompts a return of Han-Tyumi who pops in after murdering the universe.
[READ: April 29, 2021] Manopause
I have no idea who Bernard O’Shea is. Well, he’s an Irish comedian, but I don’t know what kind. He could be Ireland’s Jeff Foxworthy for all I know. I doubt that he’s Ireland’s Dave Chapelle, anyway.
I read O’Shea’s first book when it came across my desk at work. When this one appeared a few days ago I thought it was the same guy. A little research confirmed it, and since I mostly enjoyed the first book, I thought I would read this one as well.
It’s tough playing the mid-life crisis card, especially for a successful male. And, honestly, for a bunch of the book I did think “oh, moan moan moan.” The key though is if you can make the moaning funny. O’Shea manages to do that for a time but then, unexpectedly, the book gets serious. O’Shea looks seriously into changing is life and he explores several ways to do so.
Manopause is a funny enough term, but I appreciate that O’Shea had the sensibility to include his mother’s comment about him using the word.
He told his mother he was going through “the manopause…the male menopause.” To which she replied
If you had any idea what the menopause was like, Bernard, believe me, you wouldn’t go through it. Sweating, hot flashes, no sleep–at times it feels like you are going mad…. You wouldn’t survive 30 seconds of it. No man would survive it. Jesus, if ye did go through it, we’d never hear the end of it. And if you went through it, you’d hospitalise yourself.
That might be the funniest thing in the book.
We met Bernard’s long-suffering wife Lorna in the first book. She is longer-suffering still.
In chapter one, Lorna gives him an amazing birthday present. She takes herself and their three kids away to her mother’s for five days. He has five days to himself, to do whatever he wants. (more…)
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SOUNDTRACK: hiatus
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