As the opening salvo of the aptly named Strange Songs for Strange Times, hits my inner ear, an odd array of music makers is conjured in my mind. Ray Davis is followed down the catwalk by Vivian Stanshall, and even, at its wildest moments, Dudley Moore gets a look in. And they are all sporting their signature styles, namely observational songwriting, flights of lunacy and pinpoint precision satire, respectively.
Between spoken word interludes, which feel like Hunter S. Thompson having a nervous breakdown, aided and abetted by George Noory, Thunderclap! blends acoustic folk with alt-pop and Python-esque parody with subversive singalongs.
Monster of Speed is Arlo Guthrie having a manic episode, A Cinematic Prayer is built of robotic angularity, depressed jazz vibes and a tortured musical theatre satire of the like we haven’t heard since Kurt Weill left the building and Bon Voyage Sweet Chicken is the sort of song that Randy Newman might have written if he had become obsessed with David Bowie.
Now, I know I have littered the previous paragraphs with strange and tortured musical references, but it is only because Thunderclap! is so out there, so odd, so brilliantly bizarre, and so unlike anything you have heard before that it is the only way I can make any sense of things, at least in a way that I can put on the written page and give you, dear reader, an idea of what is going on here.
But, to be honest, even such descriptions are hardly adequate. Best to just dive in, listen to the album and immerse yourself in the mad, mad, mad, mad world of Thunderclap!
Strange Songs For Strange Times? Indeed, and thanks to Thunderclap! getting stranger all the time.
Website – https://www.thunderclap.ca/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/thunderclapmusic
Instagram – http://instagram.com/thunderclapisms
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