Flight of the Conchords' 2008 self-titled debut album presented a collection of songs that adeptly combined witty humor with memorable, catchy arrangements. Only slightly over a year later, the duo is back with their follow-up album, "I Told You I Was Freaky." This time, New Zealand's self-appointed fourth-most-popular, guitar-based, digi-bongo, a cappella-rap-funk-comedy, folk duo fails to impress.
The Conchords, made up of Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, is a comedic musical group. They parody everything from folk to hip-hop to rock and have starred in their own HBO TV series. "I Told You I Was Freaky" culls 13 selections from the show's second season, all of which focus on McKenzie and Clement's vocal exchanges.
Many of the songs' weaknesses stem from the lyrics. Throughout the album, the pair relies on repetition rather than wordplay to drive their jokes. For example, album opener "Hurt Feelings" features the unwieldy lyric, "I call my friends to say let's go to town/ But they're all to busy to go into town/ So I go by myself, I go into town/ Then I see my friends, they're all in town."
At other times, McKenzie and Clement grope desperately for any possible rhymes, as in the title track: "Let's take a photo of a goat in a boat/ and then we can float in a moat and be freaky." With such forced writing, Flight of the Conchords crosses the line from their previous likeable awkwardness to perplexing clumsiness.
McKenzie and Clement forsake their folk roots in many songs, opting for more hip-hop or rap parodies, and the acoustic guitar accompaniments that were at the core of the duo's sound only appear in a handful of tracks. Throughout the album, uncomfortably forced rapping fails to make up for the lack of solid melodies.
Mickey Petralia's production and programming only serve to accentuate Flight of the Conchords' lack of creativity. His simple beats on "Sugalumps" and "We're Both in Love with a Sexy Lady" are unimaginative replacements for the duo's typical upbeat guitar work. Overproduction ruins "Petrov, Yelyena and Me," obscuring the story of a cannibalistic journey at sea with layers of keyboards and bizarre vocal overdubs. "Too Many Dicks (On the Dance Floor)" comes off as annoying due to its heavy reliance on auto-tune, not to mention its juvenile subject matter.
Elsewhere, songs like "Demon Woman," "Rambling Through the Avenues of Time" and "Angels" are pure filler, containing no potential for jokes or good songwriting.
The album does, however, pick up a bit on the second half. "Fashion Is Danger" is wonderfully '80s, boasting grooving synthesizers and stuttering, cut-up vocals over a simple yet effective dance beat. "You Don't Have to Be a Prostitute" is a convincing parody of The Police, and "Friends" is a pleasant a cappella ode to the joys of companionship.
The best song by far on "I Told You I Was Freaky" is "Carol Brown." Boasting the album's only true guitar hook, a steady piano rhythm and female guest vocals, it returns the Flight of the Conchords' former charm for a fleeting moment. Backed by a sunny accompaniment, Clement sings clever rhymes about ex-girlfriends like, "Flo had to go, I couldn't go with the flow." "Carol Brown" holds its own in comparison to any of the songs off the Conchords' self-titled debut.
Unfortunately, these few bright moments are unable to save a largely dull and uninspired album. Faced with the pressure of creating a second season's worth of songs, McKenzie and Clement fall back on cheap jokes, inane repetition and strings of random words. Unlike the songs on the duo's first album, the majority of the cuts on "I Told You I Was Freaky" make little sense when taken out of the context of the TV show episodes. Fans would be better off simply picking up the "Flight of the Conchords" second season DVD than buying these tracks; this collection fails as a stand-alone work. The Flight of the Conchords may be freaky, but they certainly aren't funny.
