Listened to Jonathan Coulton's Some Guys - So You Don't Have To
I've always been a big Jonathan Colton fan, like most geeks who grew up in the post-meme era. Skullcrusher Mountain was always one of the songs I thought typified my personal preference in dating methodologies.
We are talking hard-core geek.
At some point, not having been immersed in the culture as I was, I fell out of touch with what he was up to. The last thing that I had any contact with was Artificial Heart, which I really liked but recognized reflected a certain growing – though always present – general disenchantment and darkening of view. Really good as it just happens to strike my fancy, but not necessarily to everyone's taste.
This apparently had some repercussions, because he didn't put out another album for something like six years.
By that time, I had moved on musically, lost touch with that particular fandom, and never actually heard Solid State – and I still haven't. The title list looks promising, with references to modern geek dumb, titles with appropriate levels of darkness ("Pulled down the Stairs"), and at some point I have to get around to that.
Instead, this morning I decided to pick up (and by "pickup" what I really mean is "stream on YouTube Music") Some Guys, his most recent album.
Let me cut right to the chase: it has never been a secret the Jonathan Coulton really loves his 70s music. Yacht rock is his calling.
Apparently, the desire and hunger for yacht rock overcame him and he cave into the creator-impulse to make an entire album of pure yacht rock covers including "Wildfire"" and "Same Old Lang Syne". Frankly, if you have heard any parities of 70s rock music in the last several decades since the 70s, you can probably at least home several tracks off of this album.
I hate it.
They are loving, perfectly tuned re-creations of the originals. Don't expect clever rearrangement, don't expect anything exciting to go on in the lyricism, don't expect anything that makes this feel like it could fallen out of any time or any place but that which either was or idealizes the 70s.
If you want to go out on your big boat while wearing a Hawaiian shirt unbuttoned to your bellybutton, showing off your thick thatch of chest hair and multiple gold medallions, smoothing down your big old porn stache, as three or four tanned beach bunnies in string bikinis set up lounge chairs on the front deck – except not as fun because everybody involved is 60 years old, this album might be for you.
If you are seriously nostalgic for the 70s, this album might be for you.
If you enjoyed Jonathan Coulton's geek-aware lyrical styling, experimental song structure, and innovative arrangements of songs like Baby Got Back? This album is not for you. Likewise, this album is not for me.
It's the kind of thing that you can put out when you are no longer worried about satisfying your fan base and just want to satisfy yourself – and there's nothing wrong with that, nothing at all. But the results are more likely to speak to you than they are to speak to everyone around you.
It doesn't speak to me.
If you want to hear Some Guys, it's available on most streaming platforms or you can buy it from Coulton's own website directly.
Rating: -1 / -4 - +4
[[Some Guys (album)]] [[Jonathon Coulton]] [[my reviews]]
#blog