 Marcy Playground
Shapeshifter
Capitol Records
CD Review by Andrew Hamlin
I hated
"Sex and Candy" as I've hated few Top
40 fodderings in the last few years, and no, John
Wozniak attending my old school and living in the
same barely off-campus housing where I enjoyed
some of my favorite social gatherings (a conga
line to the Flying Lizards' "TV"
anyone?) did not ameliorate that. All the folks I
partied with in that complex refuse to come out
of their homes now—why couldn't this
so-cool-he's-a-coolant sweet-sniffer caressing
his crotch as he torch-sang follow their
example? This second Marcy Playground album
though, comes with cover art purloined from the
Butthole Surfers, which just might provoke them
into cooking another "Pepper," and
Wozniak's taken up singing through, I think, a
submarine intercom system, which forces him above
a whisper and makes the funny bits funnier. So Fountains of
Wayne don't try for in-your-face funny
much now (though Utopia Parkway
is my Number Five album of 1999) and They Might Be
Giants are having an off-year with a
web-only assemblage of two livewire cuts floating
on bilge, and John Linnell, who's half of They Might Be
Giants, released State Songs, my
Number Ten album of 1999: wise, paranoid, and
inclusive of car alarms. So get Utopia
Parkway and State
Songs before you get this one, but
since you've come this far with me on this one, I
bid you follow this Shape breakdown.
Songs I trust:
"It's Saturday," which is about being a
sick child, has yodeling, and makes it work;
"America," more intimate than its title
noun; "Bye Bye" which is catchy enough
in the acoustic guitar and drums that I don't pay
attention to the words; "Secret
Squirrel," a melange of "Secret Agent
Man" guitar and cartoon tweaking that
willfully bricks the name of Secret Squirrel's
arch-nemesis; "Wave Motion Gun," which
is much better if you don't read the lyrics first
because the part about Starblazers is the
best part until the chorus and you don't want to
hear Wozniak mixing hard drugs with Starblazers
anyway;
Songs I don't
trust: "All The Lights Went Out," for
invoking Nirvana's soft-loud structure
without due cause and stretching
"heaven" to eight syllables;
"Rebel Sodville," because it finds its
attempt at surrealistic imagery stimulating;
"Sunday Mail," because it finds its
title concept is way chuckalicious; "Pigeon
Farm," because it thinks its sarcasm
("nobody insane here") is perceptive;
"Never," which repeats the mistake of
"Pigeon Farm"; "Love Bug"
which never mentions Herbie once; and "Our
Generation," which, despite some nice
generalizations ("the Free To Be…You
And Me Generation" and a lot of
early-70's psychedelic teaching the world to
sing), sounds less than convincing through a
submarine intercom. Though I daresay it sounds
better that way than some other way.
So all in all, a
seven-five split. Time to roll another ball.
While you're waiting on ball return may I suggest
Utopia Parkway
and State Songs?
Email Andrew
Hamlin
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