The novelty value of Liam Lynch’s unexpected hit, ‘United States of Whatever’ may have been immense and have all but redirected any subsequent efforts to every bargain bin in town, regardless of merit, but listen up; beneath the heavy irony and the ‘loose canon’ mentality of the ‘Fake Songs’ beats a heart of genuine gold; albeit of the ‘fool’s’ variety.
Brought to the attention of S-Curve Records by the Beatle-icious, Ringo Starr and his Pumpinkhead Records partner, Mark Hudson, Liam Lynch rises above the irreverent wit and impeccable pastiche of songs like ‘Still Wasted From The Party Last Night’, ‘SOS’ and ‘Electrician’s Day’ with some memorably ill crafted lo-fi, comparable in parts (and I really mean ‘parts’) to the literate conceit and wit of Stephin Merritt [Magnetic Fields] and to the spurious country slackerdom of pre-Geffen Beck. ‘Cuz You Do’, and ‘Try Me’ [with Ringo on drums], ‘I’m All Bloody Inside’, ‘Rock N’ Roll Whore’ [with Tenacious D’s Jack Black on vocals] and ‘Sir Track’ are alternately hot wired and feisty and very, very catchy indeed. The ‘funny factor’ may be the crunch selling point here, but only a real killjoy would say it wears too thin. On first listen, it may appear that the ‘fake’ Bowie, Bjork and Pixies songs have all the best lines, but on closer inspection it’s the ‘straight’ tracks that are the most situational and amusing, relying more on the absurdities and natural parlances of everyday speech [‘It was Daddy’s idea to show Morse code on walkie-talkies. We’re rich now’]
Don’t want to intellectualise it too much, and overstate the deconstructive nature of the record, as this really isn’t the point: it’ s far too entertaining for that, but in the words of Steve Coogan’s Tony Wilson it’s an introduction that can be taken on two levels: the ridiculous and the absurd. Not unlike the actual fate rock n roll (or Factory Records) in general.
Responsible writing, producing and creating MTV’s cult-hit, Sifi and Olly, Lynch is likely to be pushing this kind of candy for years. Enjoy him in this guise while you can.
The CD also comes complete with a DVD collection of home movies, videos, behind the scenes footage and animations.