One of the hardest balancing acts to pull off is the fine line
between humor and social commentary that is usually known as
satire. There is a small but incandescent pantheon of truly
brilliant satirists: Swift, Voltaire, Tom Lehrer, early
Saturday Night Live, the films of Christopher Guest and
(sometimes) Kevin Smith, Joe Bob Briggs, and HL Mencken come to
mind immediately.
American folk singer Tom Smith has always threatened to break
through into elite company like this, but for one reason or another
his past efforts have fallen into the ‘not quite’ category. He’s
been good, but he’s never been great. At least, not until now.
Because his latest CD,
And They Say I’ve Got Talent, is a poisoned poniard in a
jester’s costume, alternating between biting and gut-wrenchingly
funny. The World’s Fastest Filker (who has been known, literally,
to write a funny song on an audience-chosen topic while being timed
with stopwatches) has gone beyond himself into something more. I’m
not quite sure where he goes from here, but I bet it’ll be fun.
ATSIGT is well produced, spare and simple; Smith doesn’t go
for obviously complex arrangements or musical stretches. He is a
singer/songwriter, with the elegance common to the best examples of
that breed. Where there are instrumental fillers, they’re well
chosen; I particularly like the marching band sounds on “Trans Poly
U Fight Song” (referencing the truly brilliant Phil Foglio comic
strip
Girl Genius).
The gold is the songs. “And They Say I’ve Got Talent” is a
biting, vicious, funny and sad look at the music industry’s
manufactured divas, specifically (quoting from the liner notes) “in
particular the one whose name rhymes with Canessa Varlton.” When
Smith sings “I’ve got a whole bunch of press releases, smiles, and
evening gowns / To hide the fact that my songs are Tori Amos
hand-me-downs” it’s winceworthy — Smith is singing what a lot of
us have thought and never said out loud. I know I’ve thought
it.
“The Illuminati Polka” is split-your-side funny, a musical
salute that manages to make conspiracy theory and paranoia cheery
and danceable. “Dark Country” is chilling, “The Ballad Of Rupert”
is both hilarious and oddly sad, and “Rich Fantasy Lives” should
immediately be adopted as the official anthem of geeks, freaks, fen
and misfits everywhere — a group I proudly count myself as part
of.
And They Say I’ve Got Talent would be easy to pigeonhole as
fannish music, as just another folk or humor CD, but it would all
be wrong. What it is is brilliant and worth checking out.
[
For more information or to order this CD, check out
www.tomsmithonline.com]
