Flight Of The Conchords

Confession time. I haven't seen one frame of the TV series this album is lifted from ( I mean to put that erroneous oversight right by the way) Consequently I come at this album from a completely fresh perspective and judge it just on the strength of the songs.
These are parodies done in various styles - rap, R & B , singer songwriter and so on and are not only spot on musically with fulsome melodies and erudite arrangements but brilliant lyrically . You will laugh ...a lot. I was painting the first time I listened to this album and one couplet made me laugh so hard I dripped paint over the carpet , missing the dustsheet I had meticulously laid down. Thanks a lot guys.
It's all quality stuff but the highlights for me include the Pet Shop Boys pastiche "Inner City Pressure " ( "The manager Bevan starts to abuse me , chill out man I just want some muesli ".The bass line , widescreen synths and the use of the line "You just stand there" are uncanny. The rap p**s take "Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenocerous" has priceless lines like "My lines are so potent they end this small segment and made all of the ladies in the area pregnant./Yeah sometimes my lyrics are sexist but all you lovely bitches should know I'm trying to correct this". It's "Motherflippin" ace.
On the earnest R&B overload of "Think About It" kids are killing each other with knifes and forks and getting disease from monkeys. "Ladies Of The World" is a flawless parody of smooth contemporary soul leading into the profane hard edged rap hilarity of "Mutha,uckas" . "The Prince Of Parties" is a wonderfully observed rip off of 60,s psychedelic music . I'm not entirely sure what "Leggy Blond" is pastiching - though over intense singer songwriters would be my guess. "Robot Boom " is a superb and blatant Kraftwerk caricature where it's the year 2000 and there are no more humans-"We used poisonous gases and poisoned their asses" -or elephants and "We no longer say yes we say affirmative/ Yes......I mean affir... affirmative " .
"Boom" rips the p*** out of ragga before the positively identified singer songwriter tones of "A Kiss Is Not A Contract" but it is "very nice". "Business Time" is an approximation of Outkast and 70,s loved up funk. "Bowie" not surprisingly extracts the urine out of the great man right down to the slightly warbly voice. It's actually, for me the funniest thing on here ."This is Bowie to Bowie" he intones " Does the cold of deep space make your nipples all pointy Bowie?" /Do you use your nipples as space antenna to transmit data Bowie?". The "Lets Dance" segue is fantastically done.
Flight Of The Conchords is extremely silly and out of context from the series might not have worked as a stand alone album . But speaking , again, as someone who has only heard this music out of context of the TV series I've got to say it does work , indeed it works superbly . It is meticulously observed and sounds ridiculously easy but probably isn't .These are gifted musicians with a forensic eye for the absurd. The Conchords really hit the heights .Just don,t listen to it while painting .

The Flight of The Conchords TV series was perhaps the one thing since Peep Show that I simply had to watch every week. Of course I didn't actually watch it every week as my attention span simply doesn't extend that far; I did buy the DVD though and watched the entire series over a weekend.

I don't throw this word about with gay abandon, but on this occasion it's more than justified. Flight of The Conchords was/is GENIUS. Quite apart from it being the funniest thing on TV, it's musical parodies were so spot on that you couldn't help but laugh. This CD brings the best of them to your home CD player in crystal clear stereo.

Be it the Pet Shop Boys stylings of Inner City Pressure, the Barry White-aping Buisness Time, the French Bossanova of Foux du Fafa or the Kraftwerk-baiting Robots, virtually every song hits that sweet spot. It's funny AND musically accomplished.

Of course I would have to admit that it's not quite the same as watching it on TV or catching their side-splitting stage show but if it falls short from the genius on display there, its only by the merest of fractions. As funny as it is catchy, this is simply sublime.

The only reason it's four stars not five is that it can't quite match the TV series.

The Flight of the Conchords' Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement have made an EP with a full-length that further immortalizes some of their funniest songs recorded .

Part of this collection's genius is the way the boys effortlessly move between musical genres while celebrating the catchiest and most recognizable clichés of each genre.

My favorite is Pet Shop Boys "Inner City Pressure," where Clement and McKenzie put their most funny British accents to sing about lower-middle-class urban poverty. Background synthesizers evoke the '80s while McKenzie sings, "Counting coins on the counter of the 7/11. From a quarter past six til a quarter to seven. The manager, Bevin, starts to abuse me. Hey man, I just want some musely".

The same can be said for Bowie in space and bussiness time.

A very enjoable album that will make you smile all the way and has a huge feel-good factor.