Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children MacNuggits – F

I’m utterly flabbergasted and have no idea what to say about Bobby Joe Ebola And The Children MacNuggits’s new album (and first in a decade), F.  For you see, I like this record. It’s fun, it’s catchy, it’s funny and it’s sarcastic but man, is it weird. Like, really, really weird.

While technically just a duo – Dan Abbot singing, playing guitar and keyboards along with Corbett Redford singing – F features twelve guest instrumentalists making for a much fuller sounding record than what would have been accomplished with just the duo. But what exactly is that sound? Most simply, I would describe it as pop-punk (listen to Poly) but there’s also a low-fi folk-punk vibe in some of the songs – such as the album highlight Sandwiches & Ammunition which is an anthem about running from the law. Others – Pac-Man & Pop Tarts – have a horror punk feel. The Only Difference also has that horror punk style but is done in a happy-go-lucky fashion (think horror punk meets Beach Boys). Then you get weirder curve balls from the Mexican mariachi Real Cool and Lake of Flies which is a effect-filled rock song that sounds like Tenacious D meets seventies psychedelic rock, and yet, I think that’s a horrible descriptor. Going from that to the bare boned acoustic Waking Ups Is Hard To Do makes no sense; yet they do it and it, somehow, works.

There’s really no concurrent style. They mix everything and try everything – from the upbeat, gospel-like anti-religious tune of Sweet Shit Of Christ or the slowed down closer of Life Is Excellent that features the classy lines of “Life is excellent / the tap water tastes like excrement”. The only truly consistent thing throughout F is the vocals (which has a slight similarity to Aaron Scott, but only slightly),the poppy tempo and sarcastic lyrical overtones.  Only once do they truly and totally fuck it up and that’s with Postcards From Inferno (See You In Hell) that features a god awful fake news report about the band going off and killing everyone at a show for over two minutes. It’s long, painful, dumb and not remotely funny and is made worse as the albums not done yet. Of course, with so many changes in styles, Postcards isn’t the only hiccup – Time Is Crawling is pretty painful too – but it’s the biggest instigator.

Suffice to say, F is weird. That’s not saying it’s bad, there are enough solid tunes here to keep me coming back and replaying the album, but it’s definitely not for everyone. Folk punk plus pop-punk plus a weird sense of humor  equals Bobby Joe Ebola and The Children McNuggits.