The Album Most Likely To
Smile...you can't? Listen to this album and you will. Gloriously infectious and jolly, it's a festival of love and joy crammed into a typical running time. The Boy Least Likely To have produced a record full of jaunty tunes and pin-sharp witticisms to rival, and completely thrash, the most embittered purveyors of all this emo nonsense that is so the current trend. It's like a bag of Maynard's Wine Gums; varied flavours, all as sweet and joyous as each other. Yum.
From the opening notes of 'Be Gentle With Me' you know you're in for a treat, a sugary song, crunchy like a pink wafer biscuit on the outside and soft like caramel on the inside, it's scrumptiously fun and bumpy and bouncy like The Beach Boys at the circus, or something...It romps along with shiny skill and precision, the lyrics brilliantly clever and fragile and the music happy and flamboyant, like the Care Bears having a rave in the clouds.
'Fur As Soft As Fur' is funky and booming with delicious blue notes hitting every now and then in the vocal pattern which just set your loins ablaze and then it's 'Monsters,' an absolutely bang-on paean to small-town life and anyone with an understanding of what that's like will immediately relate.
Imagine Bob Dylan as if he were a cuddly toy rabbit and you've hit the feel of 'Warm Panda Cola.' Complete with harmonica and all the hallmarks, it's got a child-like edge to it that makes you cringe with euphoria, coming straight after the catchy 'Paper Cuts' with its magnificent chorus.
'I'm Glad I Hitched My Apple Wagon To Your Star' has an 'Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da'-ness about it and is one of the most enjoyable rides through orbits of outlandish music you'll ever experience - quite an outstanding track. 'Hugging My Grudge' is a gorgeous soft rock 'n' roll number that rattles on with its locomotive drum track and beautiful synths and harmonicas hitting your head gently and jovially.
Imagine the meeting point between the Eels and Kid Carpet and you're pretty much at the sound of The Boy Least Likely To, not as serious as Eels have become of late, more like the child-like outlook of their sounds of auld, and with the funny aesthetic of Kid Carpet, but without the sickening gimmickry and eventually annoying quirks. No, this ensemble have got it just right, the perfect mix of happiness and intelligent, thoughtful lyricism, dance-worthy musicality with listen-worthy staying power, you won't be retiring this album to the 'had enough of' pile anytime soon!