Albums by this artist

Fake Songs (2003)

Liam Lynch

Fake Songs

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» MARK T.R. DONOHUE | STAFF WRITER

Liam Lynch Fake Songs S-Curve, 2003 RiYL: Paul McCartney, "Weird" Al Yankovic, Tenacious D

Bursting from his bedroom with a bucketful of ideas and the manic energy of a lo-fi rockin' Robin Williams, "Sifl and Olly" creator Liam Lynch's first CD release is by turns alluring, obnoxious, and laugh-out-loud-funny. A peculiar stew of old and new material, Fake Songs takes its name from a series of stylistic parodies of late 20th century luminaries -- e.g. "Fake Pixies Song," "Fake Talking Heads Song," "Fake David Bowie Song." These short pastiches are among the album's highlights, as more musical thought seems to have gone into Lynch's imitations than some of his original material elsewhere. The lyrics are particularly hilarious. For example, "I live in a city / It's shiny and pretty.... I'm jumping out of boxes / and surprising your foxes," which could only be "Fake Bjork Song."

The album also features some gag originals like "I'm All Bloody Inside" and "Sugar Walkin'," which do not always hold up to repeated listening, and some straightforward, British Invasion-style pop songs, a pair of which ("Cuz You Do" and "Try Me") feature the actual Ringo Starr on drums. The album's pacing, shuffling between the parodies, gag numbers, and handful of pop tunes, could use some work. But the minute-and-a-half of "United States of Whatever" is truly glorious, and "Rapbot," which could easily be very bad, is actually kind of funny.

As you would expect for a guy who thanks all four of his cats in his liner notes, Lynch is something of an eccentric, and there are a few tracks on Fake Songs that may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but aren't much fun to listen to in practice. Thankfully, for every "Vulture's Son," there's something terrifically weird like "Horny Kind of Love" or the inexplicably uproarious "Electrician's Day," where Lynch takes the pulpit to thank the lord for giving us black tape and voltage meters. Tenacious D slaves will want to hear "Rock and Roll Whore" which features an operatic Jack Black wailing "she's got an ass like the rising sun." Rock!

The album could use fewer jokes and a couple more songs like "Cuz You Do," which is a nicely dynamic, midtempo love song produced in the same scratchy, mid-fi sound as the album's more twisted tracks. But as the accompanying DVD reveals, Liam Lynch is so weighed down with ideas he could hardly stick in honest crooner mode for more than two or three minutes.

Among a number of music videos, skits, and puppet shows all of which seem to have been written, filmed, performed, and edited entirely by Lynch himself is a half-hour or so documentary showing the artiste at work. Flitting around in the studio between his garage (where he's assembling an actual "Rapbot" out of garbage cans and stereo parts), his studio (where he's overdubbing drum tracks), and his computer room (where he's putting together all the parts for the DVD), Lynch finds time for lengthy conversations with his cats and a run-in with his record company's lawyers over copyrighted images on his DVD's footage. You get the idea the guy is in dire need of medication, or at least a nap.

Given the presence of the entertaining DVD footage as a free bonus, Fake Songs is definitely worth its purchase price -- especially since it also includes "United States" and the ear-tickling Ringo tracks. If it succeeds, we may next see a Liam Lynch boxed set. One disc simply isn't enough to contain this guy's imagination.

MARK T.R. DONOHUE | Mark T.R. Donohue is a prolific freelance writer whose areas of expertise include Rockies baseball, video games, genre television, English soccer, and pub rock. He lives in Colorado, where he cultivates the largest and creepiest private collection of Alyson Hannigan memorabilia in the Mountain West.