Lounge Against the Machine [EXPLICIT LYRICS]

Richard Cheese

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 17, 2000)
• Original Release Date: October 17, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics
• Label: Oglio Records
• ASIN: B00004Z40S
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #8,385 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #5 in	Music > Pop > Easy Listening > Retro Space Age
  #17 in	Music > Pop > Easy Listening > Lounge
  #26 in	Music > Miscellaneous > Comedy > Comedic Music > Novelty Music

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
On Lounge Against the Machine, alt-rock hits get the Vegas treatment way before their time. Vocalist Richard Cheese and his piano trio really know how to warp a song. Rage Against the Machine's "Guerilla Radio" sounds smooth as silk, if incredibly schmaltzy, in the hands of this wayward lounge act. The Dead Kennedys' "Holiday in Cambodia" gets completely defanged in Cheese's rendition. And it's definitely strange to hear the rage drained out of Nirvana's "Rape Me" and replaced with bland, mindless enthusiasm. The tone of these covers is so far removed from the originals that at times you forget what you're really listening to. At moments like these, Cheese and the boys sound like some anonymous combo going through the motions. But then you'll hear the singer let loose with some foul language or croon a harsh line and it sounds downright strange and funny. Lounge Against the Machine can be tiresome at times, but it certainly takes the piss out of these songs. --Fred Cisterna

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Same Machine, Now With 60% Less Rage!, March 16, 2001

By	Christopher Dudley (Laurel, MD USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a very funny CD if you know the original songs, or even if you just know a few of them. The best part about it is that RC makes the songs amusing without changing a single word. In a time when most of the top-selling music is all about rage and angst, Richard Cheese takes the lyrics of some favorites and rearranges them in the context of snappy, jazzy lounge music such as you might hear Wayne Newton singing in Vegas. You almost expect him to end each song with "Thank you, I love you all, enjoy the buffet!"

The liner notes explain just how Richard Cheese thought that these songs had great lyrics that would appeal to wider audiences if they were just played more clearly to show their social significance. The irony of this statement is played out in full at particular points on the album, such as when he croons "Rape me, my friend" in his swingingest, loungiest best. I recall that the satirical "Politically Correct Fairy Tale" books had a similar introduction about making the stories safe for children.

It's a fun album to listen to. Some of the lounge versions of the songs are pretty cool in themselves. I like "Come Out And Play" and "Creep," as well as "Last Resort." It's a great send-up of what sells in today's music market. But somehow it fails to offend, even for those who like the originals. I give it four stars because a couple of the tracks aren't so much amusing as annoying. But it'll have you thinking about what other songs would make good swing versions.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very cool, quite funny, not too cheesy, October 26, 2000

By	Mr RJK Johnstone (Nottingham, Nottinghamshire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This album is just amazing. The concept of the album is that singer Richard Cheese and his band take a bunch of well known alternative rock songs and cover them in the style of a lounge/ swing jazz band. It may sound very cheesy (sorry about the pun), but most of the songs are played straight and the way the songs make a perfect transition to this genre just highlights the quality of the originals. This sort of thing has been done several times before (e.g. Moog Cookbook, Pat Boone's metal covers album) but this is the most successful and entertaining. Obviously those without a sense of humour will hate this but I would recommend any open-minded rock fan to buy this because it's both funny and professionally done.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The greatest cheese for the buck, October 18, 2000

By	Ryan Lawler (Westville, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

While this disc is in no ways imaginative or musically innovative, it is easily worth the cash as a memento of the years when an unhappy clash of cultures came to a head. Richard Cheese's mix of today's unimaginative alterna-pop and equally unimaginative retro-lounge act is a beautiful ridicule of both form and content. In many ways, "Lounge Against the Machine" is more effective than recent pop-spoof acts (ala Weird Al) as it captures the ludicrous nature of the song by keeping the original lyrics and simply changing the context. This is ever-so-poignant in his rendition of Sublime's "The Wrong Way" and his often tasteless cover of Nirvana's "Rape Me." At the same time, the contrast of Cheese's happy-go-lucky lounge act with lyrics of rape, prostitution, violence and murder strikes at the tradition of a lounge culture used to pushing kitsch to an extreme. "Lounge Against the Machine" is, at its essence, a stark portrayal of a society stuck between a horribly self-righteous discontent and a painfully self-conscious escapism.