SOUNDTRACK: LONELY ISLAND-Incredibad (2008).
Since I enjoyed the second Lonely Island album, I figured I’d check out the first one as well. I mean it had “Lazy Sunday” on it after all. But in this case my initial instincts we pretty correct. There are a few songs on here that are funny and worth the time–and you’ve heard them all already. The rest are filler–mildly funny songs that are too long by half (even when they are under two minutes).
The opening song, “Who Said We’re Wack” is only a minute and change and it overstays its welcome after about fifteen seconds. Although, as I’m finding with a lot of the tracks, there are little bits that are funny, like the “raise your hands in the air” bit of this song. “Santana DVX” is an amusing little skit about Carlos Santana making his own champagne. Again, kind of funny, but not that funny. And worse yet is that they keep reusing the joke throughout the disc. “I’m on a Boat” is like the demo version of “I Just had Sex.” It’s the same premise, with the same repeated joke, but you can get a lot more mileage out of having sex than about riding a boat. At this point I have to wonder how many of these songs were skits (I don’t watch SNL as a rule) and I wonder if they are funnier with visuals added.
“Jizz in My Pants” is the first really funny thing on the disc. The best part is that it starts out so seriously and then the absurdity gets faster and faster. It’s very clever. Although musically it sounds like The Flight of the Conchords might do it better. “Sax Man” features the mighty Jack Black, and it’s funny, but I have to say that having the sax man play more bad notes (and not synthesized ones) as opposed to all that silence, and maybe having Black get even angrier would have been much funnier.
“Lazy Sunday” is still a highlight, a funny track with, and I think this is the key, new lyrics in every verse, not simple repetitiveness as humor (the old SNL standby). And of course, “Dick in a Box” is still hilarious (oh, Timberlake, I can’t hate you).
However, that repetitiveness is a problem on “Like a Boss” (although parts of it are very funny) or “Boombox” (is boiled goose supposed to be funny?) although at least the chorus is catchy. “We Like Sportz” is amusing but I feel like they aren’t dorky enough.
Then, why does “Dreamgirl” turn into an ad for Chex Mix? I know it is “sponsored by Chex Mix” but why? It seems lazy. And I simply don’t understand “Punch You in the Jeans” or “The Old Saloon” they just seem like stupid filler or in the case of “Jeans,” an attempt at at catchphrase generator or something.
As on their follow-up, the skits are lame: “Normal Guy” is awful and “Shrooms” is boring. But at least there’s only two skits.
Finally “Space Olympics” seems like a funny concept but what happens to the song? It has potential to be a really amusing concept about actual space olympics, but it drifts off into a completely different direction. Where’d the focus go?
“Natalie’s Rap” on the other hand is focused, brutal and unexpected. It is really, really funny.
All in all, this is an excellent place to hear a few good tracks and a whole lot of filler. I’m really happy that the sequel was so much better as it speaks to the possibility of even better stuff in the future.
[READ: October 30, 2011] Chew: Volume Two
As Sarah wrote in her post, I was pretty happy to have Volume Two of Chew in the house after finishing up Volume One (I’m only bummed that I don’t have Volume Three!!).
Volume Two continues the adventures of our favorite cibopath (see the previous entry for the explanations of all of these awesome ideas). As the book opens we see that Tony Chu’s former partner, John Colby is back. We knew he was still alive, but we didn’t know how alive he might be–after all, he had a cleaver in his face last time we saw him. But he has been repaired, with the latest in technology, by the FDA. And now Chu and Colby are back together, bickering as ever with new superpowers (the scene where Colby shows off what he can do is awesome).
Chapter Two (Issue Seven if you’re keeping track), introduces Lin Sae Woo. When I mentioned last time that Guillory draws grotesque characters, I had her in mind. Lin Sae Woo is an aggressive, angry woman and she is drawn to reflect that. But she also has an absurd body shape. Her breasts are preposterous–not even superhero large, stupidly large and the rest of her can barely keep up. I can’t even decide if she’s supposed to be sexy, she is so ridiculous. But she makes a formidable foe (even if she’s on the same side as Chu). (more…)
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