It's hard to know what the members of Five Iron Frenzy were thinking when they put this CD out. At eight songs, which run their course in less than half an hour, I wouldn't exactly call this an album. How about if you include the nine hidden tracks, which seem to have made history by drawing more attention to themselves than the rest of the album did? Nope. Still not an album. Sorry, guys - I enjoy some of these songs, but this CD sure is one mishmash of weirdness. At least 5 Minute Walk records had the decency to not charge full price for this thing. Don't get me wrong - Five Iron Frenzy is one of few Christian bands who have been able to survive the death of the musical trend that got them started. They are still labelled ska, but it's a bit of a stretch, in my mind. The horns definitely make their presence known in all of their songs. But there's something weirder at work here, something almost cartoonish, and yet profound. Well, sometimes profound. I'm getting ahead of myself here.

My Evil Plan to Save the World starts things off at the frenetic, madcap pace that worked so well on "Handbook for the Sellout", one of the standout tracks on their last full-length album before this one (erroneously titled Our Newest Album Ever!). This would have been a great track with which to start off a brilliant album, but it ended up here, and despite its slight musical sloppiness (something FIF injects almost intentionally into some of their songs), it's a tight and clever look at the human tendency to think we can run the world more efficiently than God can. Wordplay such as "I'm sure that I can fix it, once I figure out the physics" and "It's prophetic, no it's not pathetic!" as well as a cute little reference to "Our newest plan ever" make this one a keeper.

All that Is Good is a more serious tune, keeping an upbeat pace, but sitting in a lighter musical framework. I don't know; it seems almost a bit cheery, like they're trying to rehash their big hit "A Flowery Song" from their first album, and the music seems to stumble over itself at certain points. My biggest problem - and this is something I notice in several FIF songs, is their tendency to force the lyrics to bend around the emphasis in the music, meaning that when lead vocalist Reese Roper sings "A closed mind", his emphasis is on the word "A". It's just awkward.

Dandelions was a huge hit for the band, and I have to admit, the almost Christmas-y horn intro really draws your attention into a peppy song. Unfortunately, it goes downhill from there, suffering from a bit of a schizophrenic nature - the musical backdrop is too light for this song to really rock, and yet the horns are too tinny and zany - they sound like they belong in a much sillier song. The theme of the song is a cute one - a metaphor is drawn between a young boy bringing a fistful of flowers and weeds to his mother and humans trying to give the best they can to God. Oh, yeah - the ending's a bit awkward. Sorry to be so hard on this song, but I really got tired of it after the 100th time I heard it on the radio.

One Girl Army comes zipping in and almost saves the day. This is one of FIF's more bitingly political songs - Reese tells the story of a girl out on her own struggling to attain equality and be noticed in a world full of men who think they can do things better than she can. The way he spits out the lyrics during the verses take a little getting used to, but the song maintains a driving beat and is overall fairly successful at getting its point across.

Sweet Talkin' Woman is an odd shift in theme considering its position after the last song - I think it's about a seductive woman who just won't take no for an answer, but I'm not sure. It's actually a cover of a song from the Electric Light Orchestra, and having heard the overly synthesized original (hey, it was the 70's!), I have to say that FIF did a superb job of replacing the synths and strings with the horns and some 50's-style backup vocals. It's true to the original tune, and yet FIF makes it their own.

When I Go Out flies by in a flurry of total chaos. The entire band pretty much does their own thing for about seven seconds while Reese screams "When I go out, I play in the street, I get hit by cars, I make mashed potatoes, I get hit by cars!" And for some reason, this cracks me up. It's one of those things that's just so stupid it's funny - FIF has a little bit of a Tom Green sense of humor sometimes. It's kind of like those "Wassup" guys on TV. Really annoying, but sometimes you just have to laugh in spite of yourself.

Get Your Riot Gear is another mildly successful attempt at a political diatribe. This one speaks out against some incidents of police brutality in the band's home state of Colorado. Strangely enough, they framed it in a swing/jazz sort of setting, as Reese depicts the scenario, and then it shifts to a fuzzier rock setting for the chorus as Reese gleefully describes swinging his partner around while the city is burning down. It could be interpreted as inciting rebellion against law enforcement, but I know that wasn't FIF's intent. It's really just saying that if the police don't keep their personal emotions in check (and we have this problem in Los Angeles, in case you didn't know!), the whole city's gonna go down the toilet really fast. Unfortunately, the song is slightly marred by a few childish lyrics such as "What you did really stank."

The Untimely Death of Brad is perhaps one of the most perversely funny songs the band has ever written. Prefaced by a backward recording of someone saying, "Brad is dead. Let's kill Brad." (which is an amusing reference to the older generation's paranoia about subliminal messages in rock music), the song laments the death of the band's trumpet player in full-throttle melancholy mode. Of course, Brad isn't really dead - the song came from an internet rumor, and Reese mocks the idiocy of fans who took it at face value in witty lines such as "It's on the internet, so then it must be true" and "If you see him anywhere, remember to console him". This song just makes me laugh, especially near the end where Reese remarks, "Isn't the trumpet playing haunting on this album?" The song finally culminates in an over-the-top sorrowful eulogy - it wouldn't surprise me if Brad himself was singing backup here.

And that, my friends, is the end of this "album". But wait, there's more! Remember the nine bonus tracks I mentioned? Eight of them follow shortly, taking the form of a rock opera entitled These Are Not My Pants. The basic premise behind this was that each of the eight band members was given the theme, as well as a musical genre, and put in a room where they had a minute or so to record their part of the opera. They each got one take. The result is something comparable to one of the skits on the TV show "Whose Line Is It, Anyway?", and it takes FiF's zaniness to an absurd new level. Okay, it may be a cheap laugh at some points, but the overdone heavy metal section that Reese gets to do is downright hilarious (especially considering that he was in one of those sort of bands before his Five Iron days), and the rap bit at the end is pretty darn funny, too.

This is followed, after a few minutes of silence, by the band rehearsing "When I Go Out" three times before finally getting a take they were happy with, and then using up the extra time during rehearsal to sing a completely pointless and irritating song called Kingdom of the Dinosaurs. Honestly, these guys (and girl) are one step away from being the Barenaked Ladies of Christian music (except that BNL is a tighter band and sounds nothing like FIF... okay, there went that analogy). Seriously, they know how to make a good point, and they're not afraid to point out some of the dumb things that people (especially Christians) do or believe. And some people like me find their randomness to be quite amusing. But in the end, one gets the feeling that the reason this record came out the way it did (less than a year after their Newest Album Ever) was because they had come up with so many funny songs goofing around in the studio late at night, and they were snickering so much at the thought of how their audience would react to them, that they got a bit too antsy to get them all out on a CD. And the few serious songs here kind of suffered for it. It's all good. They were soon to redeem themselves with the similarly bizarre, but longer and more thought out album, All the Hype Money Can Buy. This was just a detour along the way to greatness.

TRACK REVIEW SUMMARY
Excellent: When I Go Out, The Untimely Death of Brad
Good: My Evil Plan to Save the World, Sweet Talkin' Woman, Get Your Riot Gear, These Are Not My Pants
Decent: One Girl Army
Weak: All that Is Good, Dandelions
Skippable: NONE

Band Members:
Reese Roper: Lead Vocals
Andrew Verdecchio: Drums
Micah Ortega: Guitar and BGV's
Sonnie Johnston: Guitar
Keith Hoerig: Bass
Dennis Culp: Trombone and BGV's
Leanor Ortega: Tenor Saxophone
Nathanel "Brad" Dunham: Trumpet

Website: http://www.fiveironfrenzy.com


Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Getting ready to go out