Customer Reviews

Racially Yours

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

this kind of lo-fi charm, delivered with an off-handed ease, so effective, so wonderful, is an impossibility to most (maybe all) of the new rock bands out there today (2006).

(don't get me started on the cliche-ridden derivitiveness and nauseating posturing of current "indie rock". I'll start dry-heaving and then randomly stab people)

anyway, this is a great record that doesn't take itself seriously but should be taken very seriously as an important testament to the honesty, power, and grace of rock'n'roll.

(to the other reviewer: it's too bad you can't appreciate the specific socio-political situation which gives rise to the violent themes in modern hiphop. or "get" the culture of the disenfranchised, which is necessary to appreciate the honesty, power, and grace of gangsta rap.)

Simply put, the Frogs rule. This album has a lot of songs and they are all good. All of the songs deal with racism in some manner or another and are subtly funny. This is a contrast to most of their other albums where the humor is raunchy and in your face. Pick up a copy if you can find it.

It's a real shame...that very few people will ever get a chance to listen to this album while the lowest common denominator pop-fluff filler gets all the playtime on TV and Radio. Is it offensive? A little, but no more so than the standard Thug-Rap is (if you want to heard hard-core anti-Negro lyrics, listen to Jay-Z and his ilk. They could teach the KKK a thing or two about hate speech!), but in this case it's to prove a point and to get people to think about the subject matter. Yeah, this from the writers of 'Love me or die, bitch' and 'Is it right to kiss the boys if you're a girl and not a boy'. I personally didn't like Othello even half as much as MacBeth. A creator is entitled to some variety of approaches and topics, aren't they?
In terms of style, they remind me of the Beatles(hence the review's title)but, then again, so does OutKast and Junior Senior at times. While OutKast is in essence the Beatles if they didn't sugarcoat their songs(Real Roses Smell like poo-poo= Beautiful people have funky attitudes)but chocolate-coat themselves and Junior Senior sweeten up something other than the music (yeah, a gay joke. So kill me.), these fellas give it a few dips in venom. Keep in mind that poison, in the right doses, can be a potent medicine. It is just what is needed to cure pop-music's diabetes but it is in such short supply that the world would have long since lost their patience with the patient, putting it out of their misery themselves.
Get this while you still can.

These lyrics are up there with Dylan or Stevie Wonder for simple, simple, expressions of complex, horrible, puzzling things. However, I won't kid myself, most people hear the Frogs' other work (lo-fi home recordings of sophomoric gay and death jokes) and cannot come to terms that they have written a very poignant album about a topic no one would dare approach in such a format.

Two white guys singing cheeky sarcasm about racism in america?
There are few things more politically incorrect.

But I beg you, LISTEN. Not only are these two admirable pop/rock songwriters and musicians (the guitarist is actually quite impressive technically) but despite the garage-recorded sound, everything here is intentionally. Sure, a song title like "two blacks don't make a white" makes you smile and then feel guilty for smiling, but the sadness, the anger, the confusion, in the lyrics and feel of these songs is real.

Force yourself to listen. I am sure that if you do this while reading the lyrics, it will stimulate some self-exploration about your feelings on race, racism, and the United States of America.

That said, I do acknowledge all reviewers who want to say it's [garbage]. But isn't that interesting in itself-- that both can be true at once? I like it, any way...

This is some heavy stuff, but the frogs pull it out. Despite being semi-improvisational (or maybe because of it) the frogs are able to produce lyrically sound, musically appealing pieces of work that make me giggle like ...sitting on an ant hill. I love me some frogs.