Flight of the Conchords - Flight of the Conchords Review
Posted by James Palm on 04.27.2008
New Zealand's fourth most popular folk band have headed into the studio to record the most loved songs from their career. The increasingly popular duo were musicians before they turned to comedy, and this impressive album demonstrates their musical skills.
The combination of music and comedy has been mastered only twice in the past, by Spinal Tap and Tenacious D. Both of those acts produced collections of music that were technically proficient and made you laugh. Indeed, Jack Black did claim that he and KG were “Classically trained/To rock your fucking socks off!”, and their outstanding self-titled album proved to be the ultimate musical comedy hybrid. While it’s perfectly easy for any boring stand-up to add a few songs into his act, traditionally the comedy is still the focus. This is not the case for veteran comedy duo Flight of the Conchords. The New Zealand act has been slowly building a reputation internationally since the beginning of the decade, and have now taken the plunge into a studio to record a fully fledged album.
Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, collectively known as Flight of the Conchords, spent their early years like most artists; being underappreciated. A subsequent move to London to produce a radio program for the BBC about two struggling folk musicians, essentially themselves, proved a hit, and later the duo succeeded in the United States with a phenomenal HBO special. This eventually led to their eponymous HBO series, soon to premiere a second season. While their live albums and series soundtrack have been popular, the duo have now rerecorded their best tracks on the legendary Sub Pop label, perhaps the first indication of the musical experience the duo intended to create.
The first thing to make perfectly clear is that there are no new songs on ...Conchords. The entire tracklist can be found on previous albums. In fact, the only people that will buy this album are likely to already own versions of every song on it. What the Kiwi boys have produced are the definitive musical versions of these songs. Understandable, as their new season is bound to contain all-new material and the Conchords have been singing songs like “Bowie” for many years. On this Mickey Petralia produced album, the focus is music, not comedy. Don’t be alarmed; even “Business Time” is still funny. But the duo have always claimed to have accidentally wound up as comedians after starting their careers as musicians, and ...Conchords is testament to their untapped potential.
Unlike a live album, the expectation of a fully recorded LP from a listener is musical satisfaction, not necessarily making you laugh. Leaving the funniest song on the album until last was a fantastic idea, as I find myself laughing at “Bowie” hours after I hear it. That said, the musical homages to each era of David Bowie’s career – the new ending eerily reminiscent of “Let’s Dance” – proudly display their musical inspirations. Their ode to women “Ladies of the World” is driven by a reggae beat that evolves into a Pink Floydian fadeout, evoking sounds rarely heard in conjunction with comedy. Psychedelia is mixed with Asian sounds on “The Prince of Parties”, a fine example of McKenzie's vocal prowess. Had Vampire Weekend taken inspiration from Asian not African beats, they may have produced something similar to this track.
Fans of the Conchords should not balk at the prospect of the comedy being oppressed by the music. The duo’s amazing lyricisms shine past the production on old favorites such as “Think About It”, another homage to a musical icon, Marvin Gaye in this instance. Clement’s mid-song musings on the costs of sneakers still illicit a smile. “Robots” is perhaps still best suited to live performances, but the new-wave overtones make the song danceable (NOTE: While listening to “Robots”, I was browsing imdb and the answer to the trivia question was The Terminator. If you’ve heard the song before, you’ll realize how funny that is), while the Shaggy tribute “Boom” is simply too funny to be drowned out by any production.
Thanks in no part to the fact that every song on this album is still amusing, the tracks that rely more heavily on the music and those that are primarily for comedy never juxtapose with each other, outside of “Mutha’uckas” and “Leggy Blonde”, which appear out of context outside the TV series. Perhaps the only real flaw of the album is that despite the brilliant compositions and hilarious lyrics, Flight of the Conchords is still just a musical comedy album. Tenacious D make more fans from their series and feature film, and the Conchords are unlikely to reverse this trend. That is unless McKenzie and Clement decide to go full circle, and record an album of original non-comedic material, and given the talent shown on this album, the results would be intriguing to say the least.
The Hit - The Prince of Parties The Encore - Bowie The Wah? - Leggy Blonde
The 411: The Conchords are rare amongst comedians, in that they are equally talented with their instruments. These versions of their best songs are the landmark versions from a musical standpoint. A serious album from McKenzie and Clement would be an interesting experiment, as the only drawback to Flight of the Conchords is it's ultimate fate; it is still just a comedy album. However, it is an exceptionally good comedy album.
