{"id":41083,"date":"2008-09-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/funplex\/"},"modified":"2008-09-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-09-06T00:00:00","slug":"funplex","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/funplex\/","title":{"rendered":"Funplex"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hailing from Atlanta<\/st1:city>, Georgia<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place>, The B-52\u2019s have recently (in 2006) celebrated their 30th<\/sup> anniversary as a group. This decade has seen them return to the road for a steady series of tours, which served as the catalyst for recording new music to spice up their gigs. Funplex <\/i>is their first studio album since 1992\u2019s Good Stuff <\/i>and the first since 1989\u2019s Cosmic Thing <\/i>to feature Cindy Wilson after she briefly left the band in 1991.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Recording for the band\u2019s eighth album began in 2006 and was completed almost a year later. The final months of 2007 were spent on the road testing new songs, and promotion for the album began early, building up to its eventual release early this year. The band was keen to update their sound but also wanted to deliver the signature B52\u2019s sound, a task given to producer Steve Osborne, who succeeded magnificently.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Opener \u201cPump\u201d is a funk-fueled jam augmented by a killer surfer guitar riff and typically daft (overtly sexual) lyrics (\u201cI look at you and I\u2019m ready to pump \/ Luminous heartthrob ready to jump\u201d); this track wastes no time reminding us how much fun these guys are (and how much I\u2019ve missed them). \u201cHot Corner\u201d is more of the same, and it highlights the sublime harmonies of Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson as they effortlessly answer Fred Schneider\u2019s conversational delivery.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cUltraviolet\u201d is blissful pop played by a band that lives for these moments, its light, breezy grooves giving way to even more hanky panky: \u201cThere\u2019s a rest stop \/ Let\u2019s hit the G-spot.\u201d With the band members all over fifty, it\u2019s a fine line to walk trying to pull off this sort of frivolous fun without sounding like horned up has-beens, but somehow they make it work for<\/i> them and not in spite of them.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The album\u2019s two standout tracks follow with a one-two punch full of spunk and innuendo \u2013 it\u2019s classic B-52\u2019s. \u201cJuliet Of The Spirits,\u201d inspired by a classic surrealist film of the same title, tells the tale of a woman\u2019s sexual awakening. Her liberation is evidenced by the lyrics, \u201cPleasure is calling you \/ Girl, can you hear it?\u201d<\/o:p><\/p>\n

This is followed by the title track, an explosion of energy kicked off by a signature Keith Strickland riff; it\u2019s four minutes in pop heaven. Lyrically astute (globalisation, consumerism, and greed are all covered), it does, however, contain the stellar line, \u201cI\u2019m your daytime waitress at the Taco Tikki Hut \/ I\u2019m your daytime waitress, here\u2019s your stupid 7-Up.\u201d The accompanying video is set in a mall and has Fred scooting around on a Segway; they sure know how to put the fun into Funplex<\/i>.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cEyes Wide Open\u201d is a track of minimalist proportions that pushes the electronic angle (thanks to Osborne) almost into Kraftwerk territory. The track opens up into pure pop for the chorus and those harmonies again are killer. \u201cLove In The Year 3000\u201d is the first misstep; its minimal electronic groove goes nowhere, leaving it sounding unfinished (think U2\u2019s “Miami”<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>), and its omission from the album would not have been missed.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Redemption, however, is immediate. \u201cDeviant Ingredient\u201d is pure pop as only The B-52\u2019s can craft it. My first thought was that it was jammed between the album\u2019s two duds (\u201cToo Much To Think About\u201d follows it), which makes it sound even better than it really is. But thanks to modern day technology on my play list version, (minus said duds) it remains sublime. \u201cDancing Now\u201d sounds like it was left over from the Good Stuff <\/i>sessions. It\u2019s again a simple groove, but this one works due to its progression into a fun jam, and the restrained vocals do it justice.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cKeep This Party Going On\u201d is a fitting way to end what is essentially a party album.\u00a0 It\u2019s a call to arms to party on in a world that has collectively forgotten how to: \u201cTake this party to the White House lawn \/ Things are down and dirty in Washington<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>.\u201d\u00a0 Ending the album with a classic song which could have been lifted from any of the band\u2019s previous albums is \u201cfreeeeakin\u2019 genius!\u201d<\/o:p><\/p>\n

So with the band reinvigorated and pounding out these songs on the road, hopefully they won\u2019t make us wait another sixteen years for the next album. It would be a shame to not follow this up swiftly, as the B-52\u2019s have retained its reputation as a good time band, one that from the sound of it still likes to party out of bounds (sorry, couldn\u2019t resist.)\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Their pop sensibilities remain firmly intact, and aside from a couple of experimental moments that didn\u2019t quite hit it, they have turned out a blissfully fun album. One more thing — this sounds much better when played at a deafening level of decibels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":29502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5939],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-41083","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-b-52s","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41083","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\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41083"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41083"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}