Published on Nov 7, 2001
Before I started writing this review, I listened to this album
between forty and fifty times – over and over and over. I’d listen
to it in the shower, while studying, while reading, and even
overnight once or twice. I also reread all of my previous reviews,
looking for a couple key phrases, none of which I found. I’d never
labeled a band in that oh-so-pretentious manner of “Not Being True
To Their Origins.”
Well, as it turns out, Tenacious D really hasn’t been true to
their previous identity. They were a side-splittingly crude,
ostensibly Satan-empowered acoustic duo based around power chords.
They’re still most of those things, but what they’ve become is an
ultra-polished rock band, with help from a couple notables from the
music community. Is this bad? Well, no, not really – but it’s
different than I expected, and it loses a bit of novelty.
The album starts out really nicely – JB and KG (Jack Black and
Kyle Gass) are chatting, being themselves, and they burst into
song. It’s all fairly laid-back, candor-filled dialogue that works
well for bringing a bit of charm. The songs start to diverge from
the familiar versions when the electric guitars drop in heavily on
“Tribute” (which, as they say, isn’t the greatest song in the world
– just a tribute!) and Explosivo.
“Wonderboy” – which has evidently gotten a lot of radio play
lately – is a neat song about super heroes. It’s followed up by one
of the most crude bits of dialogue I’ve ever heard, and then just
afterward is “Fuck Her Gently” – one of the most beautiful, lovely
songs about having rough intercourse I’ve ever heard. “Dio” is a
plea to Dio to set aside the torch – Gass and Black want in on the
action.
Track nine, “Inward Singing,” features the “Greatest invention
since yodeling” – singing on the breath-in cycle. It concludes with
Black laying out a stream of profanities ending in his frustrated
firing of Gass, setting up the next song, “Kyle Quit the Band.”
Don’t worry, they get back together by track 11. From there on, the
dialogue gets a bit confused and I’m not sure how it all fits
together. More infighting occurs, punctuated by the peculiarly
combative songs.
“Double Team” is surprise highlight, featuring seductive Jack
Black, acoustic funk lines and the utterly dynamic interjection
“…here me and KG come naked, out of the side hatch!” If you
choose to buy the album, I want you to immediately find the photo
of Gass and Black in their underpants and then think of this line.
“City Hall,” the epic ending song, is a testament to the
pseudo-pomp in which
Tenacious D is drenched.
One of the major aspects of Tenacious D is that they aren’t rock
stars. They are just two guys – yeah, Black has been in a couple
movies – that think they’re hot shit. But they aren’t. They sing
songs about groupies and having sex and “rocking your socks off,”
but they’re really just two guys playing acoustic guitar in a bar.
Did they lose that with this album? A little bit, yeah – but it’s
still a great listen. It’s fun, in that George Carlin type way, and
it’s good music, but it’s not as ironic as the stage shows
were.