CD Reviews

Flight of the Conchords | I Told You I Was Freaky

Sub Pop (2009)

By ZETH LUNDY | October 14, 2009

2.5 Stars

The New Zealand “folk-comedy” duo Flight of the Conchords transcended folk and comedy on their debut LP, a soundtrack to the absurdist HBO show of the same name, with genre parodies that were great songs in their own right. Consisting of songs from this year’s second season, I Told You I Was Freaky doesn’t tweak that winning formula.

Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie remain experts at feigning cleverness (“Some people say rappers are invincible/We’re vincible”) and exploiting the lyrical excesses of artistes (“Her eyes were reflections of eyes”), and the bulk of the contemporary R&B pastiches allow them to explore their inner Abbott-&-Costello-meets-R.-Kelly. Even better, “Carol Brown” and “Demon Woman” are more about songcraft than they are about seizing the zeitgeist Weird Al–style.

Still, much like the show’s second season, this second disc fails to build on its predecessor, rehashing the same digs at male bravado, emotional insecurity, and musical eccentricity. I laughed, but only because I knew what to expect.

Related: Interview: Eugene Mirman, Flight of the Concords, Interview: Kristen Schaal, More

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Flight of the Concords
Given my choice of late-night HBO comedy series about foul-mouthed acoustic duos with inflated senses of self-importance, I’ll take Tenacious D over Flight of the Conchords every time.
Interview: Kristen Schaal
Writing a book about romance with her boyfriend, Schaal says, "is kind of killing our romance a little bit, because you stay up late to write the book, and then you're too tired to get it on."
Madcap laffs
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Boys' life
The premise for HBO's new half-hour comedy Hung (Sundays at 10 pm) is so over-the-top as to be cringe-worthy: high school basketball coach Ray Drecker (Thomas Jane), divorced and broke, starts whoring himself to ladies on the basis of his giant schlong. I know: ugh.
Botswana beauty
As any fan of traditional mysteries knows, a good detective must pay attention to details. And Precious Ramotswe, the founder of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, finds that truer than most.
Bad sports
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Easy does it
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Where does your 1998–2004 HBO hit series about sex and the single girl go when three of your four girls are no longer single? How about the United Arab Emirates?
Review: Dinner for Schmucks
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Hooray for students
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Topics: CD Reviews , Entertainment, Flight of the Conchords, Flight of the Conchords, More

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