The Good: Amusing, Catchy tunes, Good videos (not on this disc)
The Bad: Repetitive sound, Unmemorable lyrics, Musically limited
The Basics: Despite a cool video for "Danger! High Voltage," Electric Six proves it has little to offer the listener on Fire.
I have long said, in an opinion I will not even claim is humble, that Techno music suffers from a lack of originality and depth. I believe Techno, the genre of music that is designed for dance clubs and emphasizes strong synthesizer and beats over meaningful lyrics, is the musical equivalent of big budget, special effect movies; of little lasting worth, filled with impressive spectacle and almost no substance. Fire, the album by Electric Six, does a great deal to confirm that, though it does have its significant differences from most bland, ordinary Techno.
Fire is a somewhat zany, consistently amusing attempt to make Techno funny. Typical lyrics include "I dropped a bomb on Japan, / I was a hostage in Iran. / I'm the ugly American, / Now I'm a government man . . ." from the song "Naked Pictures (Of Your Mother)." This album is quirky, with strange songs about fairly ordinary things (like dancing). It could be a Techno version of They Might Be Giants, save that it lacks actual wit.
Outside the fun of the songs, there is little else. "She's White," for example, uses predictable rhyme schemes and has almost no depth. The refrain sounds like "She's white, she is white, she is white like the light, never like the night." What does it mean? There is a ridiculous quality to it, but ridiculous in a simple way. You know how it sounds when a five year old tries to tell a joke? It's kind of surreal and twisted the way the mess up even a simple joke, so you end up laughing at how silly it is; that's kind of like how the songs on this album come out.
The one thing this album has is that it has catchy songs. For example, the funny "Improper Dancing," which complains about how people are dancing in the street the wrong way, has very hypnotic bass throughout it. It makes the album easy to listen to because the songs all seem to have a weird dance quality that does succeed in getting the toes tapping. And some of the lyrics are actually funny, like their literal interpretation of that spark between two people in "Danger! High Voltage."
The real problem is how repetitive the music is. Most all of the songs sound alike. So "Gay Bar" bears a great deal of similarity - musically - with "Danger! High Voltage." Even more ridiculous is that "Gay Bar" and the song that follow it, "Nuclear War (On the Dance Floor)," sound almost identical. This is not the failing of a group trying to create a distinctive sound for their band, this is the problem of not having any real musical range.
The proof of this is in the lyrics. There is an easy reason this album is named Fire. That is the word that appears most on the c.d. And by a pretty safe margin. One might think Electric Six is a bunch of pyromaniacs, the way they incorporate fire into just about every song on Fire. I suppose that's fine, though, as "fire" rhymes with a lot of words and rhyme appears to be the priority of the band.
Fire is enjoyable once, even with its repetitive qualities. However, even on the first listen, the sound is tiring by the time one gets to "I'm The Bomb," the second to last track. This work will not be enjoyed by anyone but the most simple club dancer who likes sound over substance and I don't imagine there are many people like that. At least I hope not. If you want quirky and funny, a far better bet is They Might Be Giants and their album Flood.
For other esoteric music works, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Then: The Early Years - They Might Be Giants
God Shuffled His Feet - Crash Test Dummies
Good News For People Who Like Bad News - Modest Mouse
3.5/10
For other music reviews, please click here to visit my index page!
© 2011, 2004 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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