Miss Piggy Lunchbox

Do you remember that 1993 Johnny Depp movie Benny & Joon? (By the way, pack it up imdb, you’ve been completely surpassed by Wikipedia.) I was spending the summer in Norway when it came out there. That’s when I saw it, and when we were looking through the paper for movies to see, my friend listed it off, pronouncing it “Benny og Yoon,” because that’s how it would be pronounced in Norwegian. I still find that amusing and actually think of the movie by that title and not by the Anglicized pronunciation.

Anyway, that movie had the 500 miles song (“I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)”) from this album on its soundtrack, which explains why I can distinctly remember hearing this song on the radio and wondering what the hell “haver” meant in 1993 despite this album coming out in 1988.

So it seems American radio was a bit late to the party (and this would have fit in great in 1988 alongside UB40’s cover of “Red Red Wine”), and it also seems we left early. I thought The Proclaimers were one-hit wonders, but Wikipedia has them, despite an extended break that saw only one album released between 1988 and 2001, releasing a total of seven albums, with the eighth due in the U.S. next month. I don’t know if any of those other albums are any good, but I’ll put the MPL seal of approval on this one.

The lyrics of these Scottish twins cut a broad swath, ranging from protest of English rule of Scotland (“Cap In Hand’) to a hangover-protest song (“It’s Saturday Night”). Musically their working range is a bit more concentrated. Everything is firmly planted in an American roots tradition with conventional song structures, pentatonic scales, and a palpable backbeat. They even cover Steve Earle’s “My Old Friend The Blues” as they take turns between upbeat and slow.

In a bit of a surprise, “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” checks in as only the second best song on the album. The honor of number one goes to “Then I Met You,” which is damn near the Best Song Ever, and was somehow, criminally, not released as one of the three singles this disc produced. It begins with an anthemic, arena-worthy guitar ring that heads into a jangly, hi-hat- and tambourine-backed ass-mover. By the time the second guitar comes in with its persistent, muted, syncopated sixteenth-notes you’ve already been convinced that you yourself waweres the world’s biggest loser until you met the angel you’re currently with. And when the song climaxes and the guitar solo hits, oxygen just tastes better as you can’t stop thanking the spirits for this gift of life. A couple more of these treasures and this would have easily been a four-lunchbox CD.

Rating:

Mixers: “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles),” “Then I Met You”
Non-keepers: “My Old Friend The Blues,” “Come On Nature,” “What Do You Do”
Filed Between: Prince (Musicology) and Prokofiev (Alexander Nevsky/Scythian Suite)

Tags: 1988, 1993, 3.5 lunchboxes, CD reviews, J-mez' collection, music, Norway

This entry was posted on Monday, July 27th, 2009 at 6:27 am and is filed under CD reviews, music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.