The B-52's - Funplex
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Music CD Cover
Artist: The B-52'sEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
CD Release Date: 2008-03-25
Music Label: Astralwerks
Soundtracks:
- 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
Free Music Notes for Funplex
Free Music Review: B is for BRILLANT !!!
Hit: 5 Stars
The short story:
This CD ties as "best" B-52s album. It's a fun, party-style music compilation for sure, but it has a decent amount of political and human condition reference to make it interesting. And, it's incredibly addictive! Recalling a comment by another Amazon reviewer on the "Cosmic Thing" CD - this CD is musical prozac, and a perfect "tie" for best B-52s CD along with "Cosmic Thing" - these two CDs are the "Yin and Yang" of the B-52s. The doctor prescribes "Funplex" and "Cosmic Thing" for whatever ails you. THANK YOU B-52s!
The somewhat longer story:
Being a B-52s fan from the first album, I was amazed how much I liked this CD just listening to the preview music clips on Amazon. Getting the CD and listening to it just a few times shows the addictive nature of it - you just want to listen "one more time" - it's fun and uplifting - but with a lot more of an "adult edge" compared to the other mega-fun album, Cosmic Thing. Perhaps new fans won't fully understand, but that realm of radical skate dogs from the 70's, for which "The B52's" was a cult classic, should be able to appreciate that this (if they are still alive!) is the same B-52s sound - now grown up, and sounding oh so good in middle-age.
So, it was natural to think - is this the best B-52s album? I thought about it a bunch, but I think that misses the point. Unless you are a die-hard "1st album" fan, the best albums are Cosmic Thing and Funplex. But they are really so different, that one alone is not best. They are really the "Yin and Yang" of the B-52's best. Cosmic Thing is the younger, lighter, carefree side of the Tao. Funplex is the edgy, more adult, fun, but slightly darker companion. The song Funplex itself - can be thought of a fun, upbeat song, but can also be thought of as a commentary on modern capitalism at it's worse - getting our fun from "faster faster, thrill thrill", while "blowing off, and losing the real thing", and in the end, questioning ourselves as to "what the hell will I do with this stuff"? and "taking a pill" to deal with it all. Sarcastic humor, but really pretty serious stuff depending how you think about it. In a word - BRILLIANT !!!
Ok - here's the play-by-play:
General: as others have said - electronica is more up front in the music, but not overdone. Female voices are awesome, really addictive, and the harmonies and highs that we expect from the B's are there big time! Amazing stamina and longevity of the B's, and these guys still tour regularly. Keep going B's!
1) Pump: Perfect start to a high-energy party CD - "Pump it up, give it up, turn up the track!" Dance the Jellybone! Great female vocals in both foreground and background. I mean really - can Kate Pierson possibly put out more energy? Hook her up to the grid and solve the energy crisis.
2) Hot Corner: Keeps the party going, but far less intense than the starter.
3) Ultraviolet: I would say similar to "Hot Corner" in keeping the party going, with a lot of sexual innuendo without subtlety. But, c'mon, it's tame compared to so much stuff out there. A lot of youth too - "Keep doing what we're doing, 'cause it's what we like!"
4) Juliet of the Spirits: OK - now here's a song really worth talking more about. I suggest that this might be the best B-52s song from the standpoint of uplifting, positive, and serious message. The message is so uplifting and spectactular. Read the lyrics and listen to it. Lock it in. If you ever are feeling down, afraid, repressed, beaten down by life - recall this song! Better yet, play this song!! Better yet, play this song every day in your car going to work, instead of taking an anti-depressant!! "Set your pleasure free, lady don't you be a fool, let your pleasure go!!!" Female vocals are haunting, so pleasant to listen to, and so uplifting!
5) Funplex: Should this be retitled "Complex"? It's like the candy called "razzles" - "first it's a candy, then it's a gum". Dance your butt off, and all of the adult message gets lost - and that's fine! But, listen to it with college friends drinking coffee, and it will turn into a point of debate over modern capitalism and the human condition. So ironic and satirical - "misery at the Funplex" - about sums it up. Brilliant, and sounds great too!
6) Eyes wide open: OK - it's GREAT! It's in the "Juliet of the Spirits" category. Musically, a great funky danceable beat. Perhaps a fast west coast swing? (which is a dance style, btw) Or, just freestyle. But a great, uplifting message - something that we should ALL keep to heart each day "I don't wanna clash, I don't want to re-hash the past, I just want release!" What a profound lyric - who says that the B-52s are not serious?
Sometimes, don't you want to grab your significant other and "Go down to your secret place, with eyes wide open"?... The song ends with a soothing instrumental segment.
7) Love in the year 3000: Not a favorite originally, but after a few listens, is really great - and who knows, perhaps even prophectic! Some really strong, and driving female vocals at some points - sometimes quite sultry. Again - the B-s vocals are just bursting with energy.
8) Deviant Ingredient: OK - brillant. Jimmy Buffet meets B-52's - perhaps the closest to the laid-back, care-free fun of "Dead-beat club", only now, it's a bit "deviant" - more adult and edgy.
But another cool part is the semi-throwback to "Private Idaho". On Funplex, you won't find any songs that are a duplication of music from the "Wild Planet" album. Funplex is the B-52s alright, but the adult version. But the "helicopter sequence" of this song is a faint throwback to "Private Idaho". Start listening to "Private Idaho" at 2mins:40sec, and ALSO "Deviant Ingredient" at the same time ~ 2mins:40sec. Also, if you listen very closely at about 3mins:15sec in "Deviant Ingrediant", the B's have a faint sounding of the "hooting" that starts "Private Idaho". A lot of innuendo in the helicopter sequence too - "I got to have it, I got to have it"..."everybody's gonna go home tonight, we know you gonna get it on"..."coming down, ... bring it down, ... bring it down", ... "I am now an eroticist" and it's all good - it cures what ails you! - "No more neuroses" says Fred! The female harmonies that follow are again a "Private Idaho" throwback - very cool.
9) Too much to think about: More strong female vocals and harmonies. This is now going back to more "fun-plex" and less "complex". Keeps the party going, especially the usual cool interplay of the female vocals and Fred counter-vocals - which almost define the B's style.
10) Dancing now: For the first 5 seconds, you almost think this is going to be some remake of Kraftwerk's "Trans-Europe Express", but soon snaps into the mix of guitar, electronica, and xylophone(?) characteristic of this CD. It's a smoother, more "future sounding" danceable beat. I guess it's about dancing now - oops, that's the title. Again - cool lyrics still come through "I'm dancing on the edge"... "the edge of a flame"... "feeling no pain"...and the song edges abruptly with the lyric "I'm dancing on the edge". As adults - how many times are we feeling like we're "dancing on the edge" - with that statement having nothing to do with dancing? So great.
11) Keep this party going: As "Pump" is the perfect start to the CD, this song is the perfect ending. Keep the party going on! This song has closest throwback to "surf dude guitar" of the past - sounds like a riff from the Ventures, or classic early B's music.
Final note: This CD is fun, deep, and addiciting. It's hard to get the songs out of your head. But since it's such a positive and uplifting message that embraces and breaks through the issues of daily life, this is a very good thing.
Funplex Poster
Along with producer Steve Osborne (New Order, Happy Mondays, Doves) the band have created a new album as cutting edge, distinctive & danceable as their debut album in 1979. EMI. 2008.16 years between albums is a gap virtually unprecedented in modern music, so no surprises that the first question you want to know about Funplex is: how does it sound? Going on the opening track "Pump", you'd be forgiven for thinking not at all: there's Fred Schneider's delirious, delightfully unselfconscious shout, there's Kate and Cindy whooping like dropout cheerleaders, there's the enjoyably garish mish-mash of early rock'n'roll, B-movie kitsch and surfboard funk that's been the group's stock in trade since their emergence in the new-wave boom of the mid-'70s. Deeper into Funplex, though, there's evidence of a new electronic edge, which can be owed in part to the input of producer Steve Osbourne, who's previously worked with New Order and Sophie Ellis Bextor. At times, the presence of dance beats, echoing effects, and pulsing synthesiser make Funplex feel a little clinically handled, like a B-52s remix. But it's worth admission just for the glorious title track, a chaotic cops'n'hippies dust-up at the mall, and the mighty "Ultraviolet". "Keep doing what we're doing cos we're doing it right!" shouts Fred. "Four miles to a breakdown!" shout Kate and Cindy. 16 years on, the party's still going. - Louis Pattison
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