Mixing humour with music is a risky path, but one TMBG have navigated successfully for nearly 30 years, most notably with the Malcolm In The Middle-soundtracking ‘Boss Of Me’. The Massachusetts-via-Brooklyn band’s millionth album begins with a handful of weedy Weezer impressions and familiar whimsical geekery. Songs about Nikola Tesla, inflammable heads and Black Ops – amusingly described as “holidays for secret cops” – pass by pleasantly enough. It’s fun, if not funny, but never painfully wacky either. Things are less enjoyable when musical boundaries are pushed – and at 25 songs long, albeit with nine of them shorter than a minute, it’s a joke that wears thin.
Thom Gibbs