Review of Electric Six's CD "Senor Smoke"

Electric Six: Senor Smoke

There's a telling moment about two minutes into the opening track on this album when Electric Six's singer Dick Valentine announces, seemingly without any hint of irony, "Mr President, I don't like you/'Cos you don't know how to ROCK!".

Imagine, if you will, a completely insane version of Franz Ferdinand being fronted by Tom Jones... This is the second album by these American electro-rock types and bloody hell it's weird. A good half of it is pretty much a straight continuation of the stuff on their 2002 debut "Fire" and it occasionally reaches the same sort of enjoyable warped humour such as on "Bite Me" (about blow-jobs apparently) and "Vibrator" (seemingly about being trapped in a lift with some girl who would rather seek solace in her plastic pal than you and hey, we've all been there haven't we?). But then, on top of that you've got stuff like the semi-acoustic "Jimmy Carter" which sounds like one of those parody type songs Bill Bailey does and the downright surreal spoken word "Pleasing Interlude". But then there's also their version of "Radio Ga-Ga" which has supposedly infuriated Brian May and Roger Taylor which is laudable in itself really because, let's face it, it's no more of a parody than this supposed "Queen Comeback Tour" looks like being. Less an album as such, more of an avant garde conceptual headfuck, "Senor Smoke" is either going to be the best or worst album you hear all year. You have been warned...

• www.electric6.com

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