Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra "Theatre Is Evil"

 

A couple of months ago, I kept seeing headlines combining The Flaming Lips and Erykah Badu.........????????????   Guess one should never be surprised by anything Mr. Coyne concocts.  Not being a big Badu fan, I didn't investigate the controversial video.  I happened to notice an additional story about a new version that featured Amanda Palmer and also noticed the famous song covered in the video.  At the time, I believed it was The First Time Ever I Saw, or heard, of Ms. Palmer...snicker...



Well, HELLO there!  Guess I didn't read far enough in the news stories to know what I was getting into.  Wasn't necessarily moved by the Roberta Flack cover so I searched no more.  Over the following couple of days, however, my beloved WPRK played several tracks from Ms. Palmer's new album and the assorted DJs were positively giddy about the release.  I liked what I heard so I added it to my "get" list and off I went to my favorite site.  The other five records on the list were no-brainers (see K. Chambers- S. Nicholson) so AP & the GTO was the only newbie. 

And "Theater Is Evil" may be one of this year's best.

Right off the bat there is this heavily produced, glam-ish David Bowie/Alice Cooper/Ian Hunter feel.  How awesome is that track?!  The next four songs are each worthy of radio play, one of which is the current single...



About mid-way through this video, I said out loud to no one in particular, "Christ, I'm in love."  As an artist, of course, as she apparently disdains males.  I noted throughout the album that she has a mannish-sounding voice at times so maybe there's a connection somehow.  Anyway, there is an awful lot of Cars-like melodies across the record and one song screams The Knack.  She even drops "my sharona" in the lyrics but it's spelled "cherona" and used appropriately for its ancient meaning.  Still, I know she had a wry smile on her face as she composed the song.  Speaking of lyrics, these are deserving of your attention.  They aren't the standard drivel prevalent in most of today's music. 

By now I had learned this wasn't my first time hearing Ms. Palmer.  I recalled that I liked what I heard by The Dresden Dolls back in '03, but that was when I was unwillingly exiting the retail music business and entering my self-imposed 30-month hiatus from new tunes.  I now also know that she grew up in Massachusetts and hence The Cars overtones, per chance.  Based on the five artists/bands I've referenced, it should be obvious that those of you in my age demographic could enjoy this record by a person close to your daughter's duration of life.  One commenter on a video, judging by his profile picture to be over 50, said "Theatre..." is the best thing he's heard since Magical Mystery Tour (I can't say I would go quite that far).  Another poster hypothesized that those who disliked the album held IQs under 90.  Now that's funny...and probably true.  The record isn't spotless, however, as it contains, without a doubt, the worst song I've added to my collection in recent memory.  Can't do it.  I'm going to take the unprecedented step of deleting this seven-minute turd of a song and rerecord my disc.  It's tragic there is something that bad on this album.  It's a piano-only, Torn Anus-type song (substitute three letters and you'll know who it is).  Yuk.

My final accolade for Ms. Palmer is this:  I'm going backward to get her previous album.