Everyone has heard of Tenacious D, but how many have heard of the comedic duo Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie? New Zealand's Flight of the Conchords or, as they prefer to be called, "Formerly New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo a capella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo," come together to make musical genius in their self-titled debut album. With music swaying between rap, swing, jazz and acoustic, the duo blends multiple genres into a hilarious 42-minute discography.
The CD starts with a jazzy French tune called "Foux du Fafa," where Clement and McKenzie go down a list of French words, detailing a trip to the supermarket and pointing out random fruits. Out of nowhere, the song introduces Jacques Cousteau. The song concludes with Clement breaking down and confessing his lack of aptitude for the French language.
Another hit track is the rap "Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros." The duo displays flow skills. Instead of dissing each other, they sing about reality, such as having tea with Grandma. This is a definite twist in the rapping industry. After leaving the thug life, they proceed to sing about "actual" scenes happening in the street, such as people getting diseases from monkeys. You can tell how painful the subject is to the pair when McKenzie sings "Oooow," emulating the suffering of a man with cutlery in his knees. Of course, when a duo as famous as Flight of the Conchords is around, it is required to write a song about the "Ladies of the World." This song shows the love for all the ladies and, in Clement's case, all the hermaphrodites.
The duo's classic, entitled "Mutha'uckas," is a hate song about racial prejudice. The best aspect of the song is that it ridicules the censorship of the media by bleeping out the bad words themselves. This is taken overboard when McKenzie raps about a fruit vendor who doesn't want to sell him a fruit. So many words are bleeped out that the only word you end up hearing is the name of the fruit.
The song "Leggy Blonde" features the artist Rhys Darby, who sings about the tech repair girl and how he likes pie. This song portrays the disconnected contact between a loved one and how he never got to do or say the things to her that he always wanted to.
Finally, what is a CD if it doesn't include a song about robots? Nothing, since they will end up ruling us in the year 2000, according to the song "Robots," which depicts the uprise of robots, the decline of humanity and how the only dance left is the robot dance.
The duo even pays homage to the legendary David Bowie by parodying all the eras he has gone through in the song "Bowie."
The only drawback to the hilarious CD is that some of the lyrics might not be understood because all the songs are related to the band's HBO TV series. However, if that gap is closed, you will end up laughing every time you hear them. You might even be singing them on the bus and get random stares from people who don't understand why you're singing about "Business Time."
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