web page<\/a>). But it’s
\nworth it when you do find it. His original songs are alternatively
\nfunny and poignant, surprisingly sensitive at times. The songs on
\nDebasement Tapes<\/i>, on the other hand, range from mildly funny
\nto viciously funny.<\/p>\nThere is the usual collection of SF fandom songs, of course.
\n“Five Years” is a tribute to the best science fiction series in
\nhistory,
\nBabylon 5<\/i>, and Smith handles it well, though he sings it
\nslower than the song it’s a parody of, Barenaked Ladies’ “One
\nWeek.””Be Our GOH” is a hilarious look at SF conventions parodizing
\n“Be Our Guest,” though you have to know some of the injokes to
\nfully appreciate the song (knowing a GOH is a Guest Of Honor
\nhelps).<\/p>\n
These songs are not the true highlights of this CD, though.
\nThat’s reserved for songs like “Honey Glazed Ham” (a parody so evil
\nI refuse to tell you what it’s about), “Barenaked Cockburn” (toss
\nBruce Cockburn’s “Rocket Launcher” and Barenaked Ladies’s “If I Had
\n$1,000,000” in a blender and hit puree), the geek humour of “On The
\nPC” and “PC99,” and the brainbreaking “Telly Taley Heart” (yes,
\nit’s probably what you think it is). “500 Hats” deserves special
\nmention as well, being Dr Seuss sung to the Proclaimers’ “500
\nMiles.” (I’m not sure that’s a parody. I’m not sure what it is, but
\nit’s funny.)<\/p>\n
If there is anything that doesn’t work on
\nDebasement Tapes<\/i>, it’s the arrangements. Smith’s background
\nvocalists are competent enough, but for some reason their voices
\nclash with the written harmonies in a couple of places. “Time
\nPlot,” a vicious sendup of Star Trek’s plot devices, is a
\nparticularly bad example, and my wife cringes and leaves the room
\nwhen it comes on. The same applies to a lesser extent to “Alien
\nAdventures” and “Smurfin’ Safari.”<\/p>\n
On the whole, however,
\nDebasement Tapes<\/i> is wickedly funny and worth the effort
\nit’ll take you to find. There are too few really gifted parodists
\nout there; we should support the ones we have.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":25353,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6045],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-36559","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-tom-smith","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36559"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36559"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}