It happens more and more these days that I'm watching some family show on TV where the audience and presenters are in stitches and I am staring at the screen blankly, unable to get what is meant to be so hilarious. The joke (whatever it is) just isn't funny anymore.
I have the same feeling of disconnection when listening to this Bristol based trio. They seem to having a great time but I don't understand why. Somehow I'm not on the same wavelength.
I can hear that most of the tunes have a playful, burlesque quality but, even after repeated listens, the target of song writer Alan Strawbridge's wit remains stubbornly obscure.
The press pack says that the album includes songs about the resurgence of game show host Noel Edmonds and the crassness of Spielberg's War Of the Worlds but there are no such specifics in the lyrics.
Schnauser's stock in trade is tongue-in-cheek postmodernism with a distinctly sixties flavour and a hint of psychedelia thrown in for good measure (check the Terry Gilliam like sleeve design).
There's a bouncy feel - like Fiery Furnaces partying with 10cc - but not knowing what drives the lampoonery makes for a frustrating listen.
Why is a music hall style instrumental called I Couldn't Fuck A Gorilla? What is the significance of the Shetland pony reference in Everything Is Nice or the singer boasting of his "lean and strapping body" in the same song?
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And what am to make of a song like Nobody Loves Me, which sounds more like an Elliot Smith outtake than a wry slice of English humour?
I Wuv You Mummy seems to mock American feel good movies but I can't be sure.
The hidden track is a spoof of a piano bar crooner ("Could I just say - you're the greatest girl I've every seen") but has no obvious link to what has gone on before.
It's all too confusing.
None of this would matter if the songs were catchier but the frequent, and abrupt, shifts in time signature seem tailor made to sabotage the album's more melodic moments. It is as if the band were worried they might otherwise lose the listener's attention.
The tone and content of the album is summed up by a track called World Of Whimsy and when, during this song, the singer asks "Don't you love my whimsical ways?", I have to be honest and say 'NO'.
Schnauser's Website
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