Mum’s the word
Mum
Summer Makes Good
Fatcat Records
Is recording the sound of tearing paper considered music? Yep.If you’re from Iceland it is. Mum makes no distinctions when itcomes to percussion. And those voices? Intsy tintsy wintsy. “La lala la, laaaaaaaaaaa … la la.”
Mum is two beautiful twin girls and couple of fellow Icelandiclads who’ve been creating some of the most delightfully atmosphericsynth-forest-dream-pop ever imagined, and with delicate attention(recording sewing machines, torn paper, random banging, etc.). Theresults are always interesting.
The band’s last LP, Finally We Are No One, was an easier listen,considerably elfin and had a few mix tape-worthy pop numbers.Summer Makes Good takes Mum from the forest to the sea – way out tosea to the chartless lonely blue. And, like any sane sailor, youget seasick, lubber for the land and hope to not die of scurvy.”Swim to shore,” Mum says.
It’s Not Funny
Sub Pop
It really isn’t funny. In fact, it’s a comedic reminder of howembarrassing it is to be a U.S. citizen right now. The laughs arethere, sure, but the message is an acidic and depressing bulletinthat the United States is rather fucked, presently.
Cross’ previous comedy album in 2002, Shut Up, You Fucking Baby,hit so hard at the ideal-youth-driven-liberal home that this latestreally doesn’t have much chance against it. “Mr. Show” hasbasically tweaked the old material to coincide with today’sheadlines. So, if you’ve heard the amazing Shut Up, You FuckingBaby, you’ve gotten the idea. What is funny are the faux titles toeach track of the album.
Let’s try to figure out what comics he’s referencing.
Track 5: “Although Indigent, Rural Families Have Little to Sayin the Matter, Their Meager, Third Rate Public Education Has KeptThem Ignorant and Thus, Great Sources of Ridicule!”
Jeff Foxworthy?
Track 7: “My Immigrant Mother Talks Funny!”
Margaret Cho?
Track 3: “I’ve Taken a Contemporary Pop Song and Changed theLyrics to Comment on the Proliferation of Starbucks in MyNeighborhood!”
Weird Al Yankovic?
Track 8: “When It Comes to Jews, Behavior One Might Perceive asObnoxious and Annoying I Present as ‘Quirky’ but it’s Okay to JokeAbout because I, Myself, am Jewish!”
Woody Allen?
Oh, what fun!
