Conchords Release Soundtrack To HBO Hit

With a hit HBO show and a devoted fan base, folk-comedy duo Flight of the Conchords is currently on top of its eccentric, New Zealander game. Its second studio album, I Told You I Was Freaky, contains 13 songs from the second season of its TV show and comes in at the easily digestible length of 33:44. While it is not a complete soundtrack to the second season, the album provides a collection of the catchiest and funniest songs to have aired on HBO.

Opener "Hurt Feelings" is a rap slow-jam detailing situations in which the two performers had their feelings hurt, asking, "Have you even been told that your a- is too big? Have you ever been asked if your hair is a wig?" As one might fear with a project such as this, without the accompanying youtube video, the song's humor falls flat. The next song, "Sugalumps," is an ode to oversized gonads that makes a mockery out of past radio hits such as "Milkshake" by Kelis and "My Humps" by Fergie. The song itself isn't great, but it's hilarious in its absurdity in the same way Lonely Island's "I'm On a Boat" is.

The title track "I Told You I Was Freaky" lives up to its name with its bizarre yet raunchy beat and lyrics. Like "Sugalumps," it parodies self-deprecating, overly sexual songs by female performers, but its use of completely absurd sexual offerings makes the humor more biting and the song more memorable. The next song, "Demon Woman," surprisingly sounds like it could have been an outtake from an early White Stripes album, but the humor is not all there.

"Rambling Through the Avenues of Time" could have been written and performed by Billy Joel, with nearly his exact voice and cheesy lyrics included. "So I sat and I acted all nonchalant / She smoked her lavender cigarette / Reading the future that lay in my hands / As my shadow played a bass clarinet." Your shadow was playing a bass clarinet? Really? Well, there was once was a time when Billy Joel, Barry Manilow, and Neil Diamond made millions with such lines, and Flight of the Conchords takes it upon themselves to do a perfect satire.

Another dance song, "Too Many D- (On The Dance Floor)," details the dreaded outcome of telling too many guy friends about a party, a sentiment shared by many guys at Boston College. Unfortunately, after hearing the jokes in the first 30 seconds, the next two minutes are redundant. The song that follows, "You Don't Have To Be A Prostitute," is a catchy reggae song that inverts and parodies "Roxanne" by The Police by describing a man stuck in prostitution, working with his "only tool." Album closer "Angels" is an acoustic ballad about angels having sex in the sky. "Nobody knows what goes on under those robes / Pushin' and puffin' and huffin' and heavin' / in heaven." The band drives home its Christian music parody by throwing in a church choir to sing back-up towards the end of the song.

I Told You I Was Freaky is everything you would expect from the album's title. It's an eccentric, genre-hopping ride that can sometimes fall-flat without the accompanying music videos but is still well worth listening to on its own. The group mocks the songs we listen to while putting them in the same poppy, two-and-a-half minute long package record sales love. The humor and music are both there, and the outlandish album is a winner. 8