No genre of music is safe from Flight of the Conchords.
In their newest album, Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement successfully manage to parody pop, folk and rap with great beats and hilarious lyrics.
On the first listen, the songs seem familiar as if they’ve somehow managed to take some of the greatest hits from each genre and just make one song that encompasses all of the individual genres. Upon further listening, it is clear that the lyrics set them apart from the songs they’re making fun of.
“Think About It” is reminiscent of a typical U2 “let’s heal the world” type of song; only instead of feeling sad about the state of the world, I feel like laughing until I cry. Clement even resorts to mumbling some of the lyrics, which is brilliant because I usually forget the clichéd lyrics of songs like that.
The rap song “Hiphopopatomus vs. Rhymenocerous” makes a statement about modern rappers. At one point, McKenzie says he raps about reality “like me and my grandma drinking a cup of tea,” which is a hilarious contrast to the rappers who claim to rap about guns, drugs and violence because it’s reality.
Their use of few instruments forces listeners to focus on the lyrics, which isn’t a bad thing because the lyrics don’t exactly overpower the rhythms of the song but are the best part of the songs.
My favorite song, “Robots,” is just a geeky song about robots killing humans and taking over the world. At one point, McKenzie has a “binary solo,” which, for those not in the know, is just numbers that computers use to represent letters. The lines “We used poisonous gasses, and we poisoned their asses” have successfully wedged themselves into my mind, and I frequently find myself singing them.
As bizarre as the song may sound, it’s actually really enjoyable because they match the techno beats with speaking in monotones. The Conchords will probably never become a huge commercial success because witty music just isn’t in demand, which is a shame.
It’s as if they took conversations and made them into songs, but the songs are good.
The music may come off as serious, but these guys don’t take themselves seriously, and it appears like they don’t want listeners to take certain genres seriously either. It’s almost impossible not to laugh out loud with lines like “There’s people on the street getting diseases from monkeys.”
Unlike other comedic artists like Weird Al Yankovic, the songs aren’t tiring because they aren’t parodying a specific song. Instead, they parody entire genres.
Even out of the context of the show, the songs are still entertaining. “Leggy Blonde,” which is sung by the Conchords’ manager in the show to his lost love, includes some sound effects made entirely by office supplies. The serious and sad situation of the song is briefly punctured by Clement rapping about his underwear.
“Boom” is comparable to songs like “My Humps” in that it uses constant repetition of one word in a suggestive way. Still, it manages to make a statement about the sexism that runs rampant in popular music. At the beginning of the song, Bret attempts to rationalize his sexism by saying, “She’s so hot she’s making me sexist.”
The only downside to this album is that all the songs have appeared on their show, so there is no new music. This minor flaw doesn’t take away from the overall awesomeness that is Flight of the Conchords. They’ve managed to mix great rhythms with witty verse in a way that is entertaining because it’s both funny and good.