Instantly one of my favorite albums ever
OK, so I’m not very indie. Tally Hall’s debut album was released on a microlabel in 2006, and it just came to my attention now, with its re-release on Atlantic.
What are they like? Remember when Weezer first came out? New and fresh, but simultaneously deeply respectful of what came before — and with a musical competence far exceeding what was necessary? Weezer’s Blue Album could have been ineptly played, and still be a fantastic novelty record. Same with this record. It just happens to be full of excellent musicianship.
So, take that music. Introduce wonderfully sophisticated humor that combines the surrealism of They Might Be Giants, the playfulness of Barenaked Ladies, and the constant surprise turns and lyrical efficiency of The Beastie Boys. But that’s not all. All this humor is interspersed with moments of poignancy similar to — I don’t even know.
The sky is deep and dark and eternally high
Many people think that’s where you go when you die(”Do you?”)
Well, I think you return to obscure
Or wherever you were, before you were
But I won’t let you lose yourself in the rain
And:
Seconds tick like boulders whenever you don’t call:
Does it seem like that where you are, wherever you are?
When they sing “I’ve been sleeping in a cardboard box … I graduated at the top. I like to take advantage of the bourgeoisie” they aren’t just being clever. AFAIK, these perennial overachievers gambled the fruits of all their labors on this project — in Rob Cantor’s case, for instance, a full ride scholarship to medical school (according to one source). And they do it in a deliciously subversive manner — subversive of the middle class they might all easily fall into, were they less reflective. They all wear matching outfits in their act, for instance, with matching conservative tie styles, except their ties are different colors. But always the same color on the same guy. And their stage names are the colors of their ties. That’s pretty much Magritte right there.
I expect most of you will love every song. I have to skip one: Two Wuv follows the tropes of cheesy love triangle rock, as the singer tries to choose between the two girls he loves. The reveal: he’s choosing between the Olsen twins. Would be funny, if creepy — except my brother and I know a guy who went to prison, and his actual shrine to the Olsen twins, with hundreds of articles and photos clipped from magazines, was used as evidence. His screen name was “KidsRHot”, and he was caught in a sting involving what has (fascinatingly) been renamed “images of child sexual abuse” in some academic circles. Kind of hard to laugh at someone stalking the Olsen twins after that.
Maybe one more will bother you, but I don’t think it should. I’m sure there are people who think Banana Man to be racist. I would love to argue with you about that. Actual racism not the source of the poignancy of the song. The character narrating the song is unreliable, and the more he thinks the song Day-O accurately describes life in Jamaica, the greater the pathos (and some word I don’t know that means patheticness — pretty sure patheticness is not a word) in his return to America. I could be wrong about it, but I don’t think so.
Have I hyped this enough yet? How about an Amazon link?
You don’t have to buy it through my affiliate link. But you do have to buy it. Do them a favor and buy it new, would you? I hear they need new cardboard boxes.
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