I Am the Messiah [Enhanced, Extra tracks]

MC Honky | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 8, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced, Extra tracks
• Label: Spin Art
• ASIN: B00008KAAG
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #171,840 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

While MC Honky's origins lie in the playful fringes of alt rock, I Am the Messiah crosses over into downright goofiness. Mixing post-big beat dance with cocktail lounge-style clichés, Honky (an nom de plume for a veteran recording artist) manages both the anything-goes spirit of Beck and the weird science of Esquivel. None of it is remotely serious and occasionally becomes tiresome in its overzealous drive to be clever. Still, Honky’s soulfulness and strong songwriting comes through in even the deeply silly "A Good Day to Be You" and "What a Bringdown." Honky’s musical gifts are just as obvious here as in his other gig, and the effortless fun he serves up on Messiah should appeal to attentive fans as well as casual newcomers. --Matthew Cooke

From URB Magazine

(Spinart) I Am the Messiah is a bold statement for a debut artist but it might make slightly more sense when you realize that you’re actually hearing seasoned veteran, E of the Eels. Under the moniker MC Honky, E displays a masterful, if not messianic ability to splice dance beats, samples, live instrumentation and vocals into comical, absurd and sometimes heartrending tracks. "A Good Day to Be You" instructs fragile egos — "Look into the mirror, it’s a good day to be you, aww yeah"— as strings swell and cascade. "Soft Velvety Fer" captures the opposite mood. The vocals are an answering machine message left by a neurotic woman (who sounds like the woman on the Eels’ "Manchild" from Beautiful Freak) who wants to quit taking the anti-depressant Zoloft. Set to jazzy percussion and guitar, the woman’s plight is ridiculous until her fear of her own mind becomes palpable and unnerving. Whatever name it’s under, E manages to illuminate life’s dark comedy.

Christina Saraceno

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quirky and Lovely, June 25, 2003

By 

jbembe (Ann Arbor, MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Am the Messiah (Audio CD)

So, some of my favorite albums contain the weirdest music available, such as Incredible Moses Leroy (Electric Pocket Radio), Beck singles (Halo of Gold), Grandaddy (Our Dying Brains) to name a few. Well this album certaintly fills out my need for more of the quirky music in my collection. Like a Duck is great (check out the video online) and is quite a musical jubilation. Should we discuss Beck influences? Besides the obvious 3 turntables and 2 microphones, Hung Up has the same sort of sweet flow that Beck's "Clock" has, oh yeah. What a Bringdown is another Highlight, as well as "My Bad Seed" -I'm kinda stuck on "My Bad Seed" actually. "The Baby That Was You" is extremely weird, and almost sounds like it samples a NIN song of all things: The Perfect Drug. While the lyrics are beyond stupid, the song works just by juxtaposing the NIN beat with the lyrics and some other cool effects (barking dogs, crying babies, cell phones, lalala choirs, etc.) The rest is kinda filler: "Soft Velvety 'Fer" is a weird monologue with someone leaving messages on answering machines like the scene found in Swingers, but the culprit is a female in this one and the stuff is much more strange. The album is a skewed mess of randomly cool music, check it out.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poignantly absurd. Buy it!, February 11, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: I Am the Messiah (Audio CD)

This is wonderfully quirky cut-n-paste music with a clear organic element. I'm a bigtime eels fan as well. I like all of the tracks; "My bad seed" is my least favorite, but "Soft velvety 'fer" & "The baby that was you" are worth the price by themselves. Nifty mpeg video for "Like a Duck" included.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars yummm, June 16, 2003

By 

"a_fish" (new york) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Am the Messiah (Audio CD)

oh my, this is SUCH a wonderful album. it mixes that lovely eels goodness in with weird old self-help recordings. Koool G Murder's appearance in "a good day to be you" is hilarious, "sonnet no. 3" is rocktastic, and the album is overall really fun and well made. it just makes me happy. I feel like E has more freedom when not under the name eels, and he's really wonderfully creative on "i am the messiah"....... *cough* I mean...he would be if it were he that made the album. MC Honky is not E. MC Honky is a former janitor. I swear...