Customer Reviews

Chantmania

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

There's an episode of The Simpsons where Homer forms a barbershop quartet. When pressed for a name, Principal Skinner suggests something that sounds funny, but gets less funny the more you hear it. Unfortunately, this CD is somewhat the same.

Following on the heels of Chant, this album gleefully skewers the fad by setting pop hits in a Gregorian-esque style. And they certainly picked some gems for this setting: Losing My Religion just fits with the whole theme, Hey We're the Monks works pretty well, and Do Ya Think I'm Sexy is just so wrong that it's gotta be right. (In fact, it was hearing this last track in the store that made me buy the whole CD). Unfortunately, there's a sameness to all five tracks (track number 6 is basically silence), which I guess shouldn't be too surprising. And after a few listenings it, well, gets less funny the more you hear it.

Until reading a previous review, I hadn't realized that some of the people who created this album were also part of Big Daddy. I guess this makes sense, since Big Daddy's _raison d'etre_ was setting 80's hits in a 50's style. However, Big Daddy's songs stand well on their own, apart from the "joke". You can listen to one without ever having heard the original and still enjoy it; knowing the original setting just brings an extra grin. Sadly, Chantmania can't seem to achieve the timeless quality of the Chants it copies.

This EP is a parody of the fad from about ten years ago when Gregorian chants briefly became popular. Here we have rock songs chanted Gregorian style. This is so absurb that it's funny. With only five songs it doesn't overstay it's welcome. I would imagine that a whole album of this stuff would get pretty repetitive. But the concept is amusing enough for the 16 minute length of this CD. Fans of novelty music should enjoy this one.

After hearing this music I had to get a copy for myself. It is an interesting concept added to well known music. Hope to hear more from these guys.

My son gave me this as a Christmas present - it has been shared with a Melkite/Latin rite priest and a women's schola director. We all agree that it is excellent chant - we just can't find quite the right service for it. The first and last cuts are personal favorites; on the last be certain that you listen very silently all the way through - it is an exercise in meditation.

If you insist on taking your music seriously, if you are unable to conceive of a musical satire on plain song, this album is not for you. But if its time for a little levity, the Benzedrine Monks are waiting for you.

If you want musical satire but chant just "isn't your thing", you can also listen to Cat Hymns and donate to a good cause as well. I'm sure it has Benzedrine Monks stele of approval :-)

Truely alternative rock. The album consists of Gregorian Chant versions of popular rock classics. "We Will Rock You" as you have never heard Queen do it....The Theme From the Monkees as you've never imagined it could sound. The chants are excellently done. I recommend it just as a collector's items - if you like Gregorian Chants, this is a must!

The CD only has 6 tracks - 5 really. The last one, The Monks' Vow of Silence, is 1 minute 17 seconds of silence so that one doesn't really count. If you want a good chant parody try Grunt! Pigorian Chant instead. It's much funnier, more creative, AND has more than 5 tracks.

My wife is a classical musician, and she just loves this CD! She thinks it is hilarious! You will too!

Hey, Hey, it's the Monks!! I received this as a gift a couple of years ago, and it's a fun off-ramp from Reality Road. What more can I say?

This is quite clearly only intended as a parody of Chant. The arrangements are incredibly simplistic (in most cases, one man singing melody, one man singing a third below him, and another a third above), and the songs consist entirely of the melodies of rock songs, sung extremely largo in an echo chamber. This CD was recommended to me by several of my musician friends; I was expecting so much more. It could have been *interesting*, watching standard chant arrangements be adapted to those melodies. Sigh. Well, at least I didn't blow more than $7 on it, though I'm beginning to begrudge at least that. Not worth a re-listen.

This is a marvelous CD for two reasons. First, you remember a couple of years ago when liberals were running around raving about how beautiful Gregorian Chant music was, like it was a prized new treasure that THEY'D just discovered? (And the rest of us went, "Well, DUH") Well, here are five, more or less, contemporary songs given the same treatment. There are no words to describe the hysterial laughter you'll experience when you hear these "monks" sing "Hey Hey, we're the Monks." Same with "We Will Rock You" - I can just imagine Freddie up in Heaven with a huge grin on his face. I'm not at all familiar with what either "Losing My Religion" or "Smells Like Team Spirit" smel/whoops, SOUNDED like in their original incarnation, having eschewed "pop music" since about the time Ian Stewart died, but more contemporary friends of mine reacted...well, shocked and amused when I played these versions for them. The CD's "tour de force" is, truly, Rod's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy." Play THAT for anybody who unbuttoned their shirts down to their navels and wore tight pants during the late '70's. "The Monk's Vow Of Silence" is - literally - that; some people have heard stuff toward the end of the cut; if so, it brings to mind Procol Harum's "Mark Of The Claw." And secondly, just who ARE these "Monks?" A quick perusal of the hilarious liner notes shows that the Monks are, indeed, several of the vocalists of the late great Big Daddy, a band that succeeded in transforming '80's tripe (like "Safety Dance," "Billie Jean," "Money for Nothing," and "Living Years") into '50's rockabilly. This is great music folks. Trust me on this one.