Like glamorous gay aliens from the shiniest possible planet in the galaxy, The B-52's have swooped in at opportune moments to remind the human race of how it feels to finally cut the crap and have a good time. Their self-titled debut album in 1979 sounded like it was cobbled together from the soundtracks of a zillion unmade 1950s B-movies, with Ricky Wilson's madcap guitar stunts, the otherworldly harmonies and A-bomb bouffants (for which the band was named) of singers Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson (Ricky's sister), and the Paul-Lynde-on-acid ravings of front-queen Fred Schneider. Even then, their sound seemed entirely peculiar, belonging to the new wave or punk movements only in its chronological proximity. Ten years later, following an extended hiatus after Ricky Wilson's untimely AIDS-related death in October 1985, the band (with drummer Keith Strickland moving to guitar) returned with Cosmic Thing, a record that proved social consciousness and unbounded joy were not mutually exclusive concepts - there were more campy UFO stories, nostalgic summertime memories, and, of course, "Love Shack", the quintessential party record of the last two decades, being to my son's generation what the Isley Brother's "Shout" was to mine: the one song that gets the grown-ups and the kids partying together at weddings and school dances and karaoke parties.
"Love Shack" certainly sounded like a live-at-the-party recording, so it seemed appropriate for the band, after Cindy Wilson's departure and an unsuccessful follow-up record (1992's Good Stuff, recorded as a trio), to retire from the studio and continue on as a strictly live entity. Their music's wild spirit had always seemed far too big and outlandish to suffer the tedious and tawdry demands of the recording process. Their unique musical invention has always belonged more on a stage than on disc, no matter how shiny and plastic and futuristic that disc might seem. That said, and whether we knew it or not, whether we cared or not, the B-52s' absence left a void. There simply had been no precedent for a record like Cosmic Thing, and with the qualified exception of their own Good Stuff, there has not been a single record released since Cosmic Thing that even attempts to recreate The B-52s sound. No small feat considering the record industry's general tendency to try to Xerox every possible success story. For whatever reason, and really, none is necessary, The B-52's are back (Cindy, too!) with a new, self-produced, self-financed record called Funplex, an album full of sleek shiny surfaces, and buzzy electronics, all fluorescents and neon and irradiated new wave pop hooks.
Should it matter that they're all in their 50s? (Actually, Kate Pierson just turned 60!) Despite the sci-fi effects, Funplex boasts the hardest guitar sound of any B-52s record to date. And you'd be hard pressed to find a hornier album on the shelves right now, particularly one which expresses its superfabulous horniness with such sublime ridiculousness. There's a G-spot! Pull the car over!, Schneider shouts on "Ultraviolet". Later on, right in the middle of one of the album's slinkiest numbers, the multi-layered and gorgeous "Deviant Ingredient", the music takes a spacy break reminiscent of the b-movie intro to the classic "Planet Claire", and for a moment, it's as if John Waters had directed Close Encounters of the Third Kind, as Fred announces the arrival of "the sensualists" in a pink helicopter. There's an swirling, suspenseful altar call moment before Fred emerges anew, like a blind man healed by a Pentecostal preacher: "I am now an eroticist!" he professes with religious emphasis: "I am a fully eroticized being! No more neuroses!" You can almost see him throwing away the crutches, as the girls swoop in the chorus.
Schneider sounds like an old-school punk on the title track, playing the part of Tim Gunn's repressed Id, condemning bad hippie fashion: "Your peace sign t-shirt could cause a riot!" Actually, Funplex is largely Fred's album, and well worth its price just for his glorious exclamations, but the record finds Pierson and Wilson in excellent voice as well, their harmonies sounding like they've been awakened from a cryogenic freeze on songs like "Love in the Year 3000" and "Too Much To Think About"; and Strickland is firmly in touch with his inner guitar hero delivering crunchy, gritty riffs while the ladies shimmy in lurex gowns on "Hot Corner". On the heightened retro of "Juliet of the Spirits", Cindy, singing lead, suggests what Madonna might sound like today if she weren't such an android.
In fact, Funplex out-funs, out-retros, and out-sexes Madonna's unitard act without breaking a sweat - or grossing us out - from Kate's deadpan opening come-on line - I look at you and I'm ready to pump - to the groovy electro-minimalism of "Eyes Wide Open" to the international call to action - "Keep This Party Going" - which closes the disc. Funplex is simply one hot pink sex party after another. Effortless, sensual, hilarious, and ultimately conscious, it's everything we possibly could have hoped for in a new B-52's album.
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BECAUSE YOU NEED TO KNOW:
"Funplex" by the B-52's
Astralwerks Records
Released 3/25/08
Produced by Steve Osborne
48 min.
SONGS: Pump - Hot Corner - Ultraviolet - Juliet of the Spirits - Funplex - Eyes Wide Open - Love in the Year 3000 - Deviant Ingredient - Too Much to Think About - Dancing Now - Keep This Party Going
On 2008's FUNPLEX, the B-52's fully awaken from their 16-year cryogenic freeze to finally present a studio follow-up to 1992's GOOD STUFF. While the v...More at DeepDiscount.com
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