GregHowley.com

I've never reviewed an album before. Tons of games, but never an album. It's just that I got a copy of the No More Kings album in the mail yesterday, and I've got to say - it's the first album I've gotten in years that I really like.

There are certainly other CDs that I can appreciate as bodies of work - discs full of songs that I enjoy. Bellybutton and Third Stage come to mind. But those are both less than recent.

Zombie Me is a catchy tune with a vaguely XTC-like sound. Not very deep, but catchy, and it contains a pseudo-rap sequence remniscient of the one in Rush's Roll the Bones, which culminates in references to pop culture, including Ghostbusters 2, All in the Family, and a Pringles commercial. The Zombie-groans are particularly humorous.

Sweep the Leg is a song I've written about in a previous post. It's the song that prompted me to buy the album, and is easily the best song on the disc, the entire tune being an homage to The Karate Kid.

The third song on the disc is Michael, about Knight Rider title character, as portrayed by The Hoff. It's not as strong a title as Sweep the Leg, but it's good.

Next off we have Someday, which has more of a Barenaked Ladies feel, and The Grand Experiment, which features Brian Setzer-like drums punctuated by the bell of a typewriter. Girl in the Sea is a waltz with a good sound and interesting use of violin and sleigh bells.

Leaving Lilliput is sung as if from the perspective of Gulliver, and contains an extended Smurf analogy which I particularly enjoy. About Schroeder is a nice piano piece - a love story about Sally Brown and Schroeder from Peanuts. God Breathed is a nice piece of funk about Adam and his pre-Eve loneliness, and Old Man Walking is a nice minimalist acoustic guitar piece.

The disc has some excellent album art which as I understand it was illustrated by the lead vocalist, Pete Mitchell. With references to everything from M.C. Hammar and The Beastie Boys to Gargamel and Darth Vader, the album is a celebration of the eighties, and one worth listening to.