Star People

Genius (BeBop)
by Jamie Kiffel

Ziggy Stardust meets David Byrne! Genius‘ power pop propels lucky listeners up, up and away, through the Milky Way, rocketing through galaxies of jazz and sproingy space chords and directly into a bologna sandwich!

This is what’s called a Concept Album. The concept: you’re taking a Hitchhiker’s Ride Through the Galaxy of Weird. The result: the ultimate party album for Pigs in Space (or any of your other friends).

“Come Together,” the opening track, is a strange brew of ultra-serious chords and the “right now” riff from the Beatles’ song. It feeds spacily into the Epcot Center-sounding “Kronos,” which smirks at its straight-faced cosmonaut compatriot, Dark Side of the Moon, using twinkly star tones, big power chords that fall like meteors… and a sudden lounge act (“You’ve either got or you haven’t got style!”) thrown in like a brief martini pause at the spacestation bar. The album is packed with 1980’s-esque sonic noises, and fabulous, 3rd Rock From The Sun choruses like “Ooh, ooh, ah! Sexy! Ooh, ooh, ah! Science!” There’s the silly romance of “I Love You, Stargirl,” which was surely written whilst seated upon someone’s toilet (it carries all that thought and depth). Crazy, Christopher Lloyd-like monologues explain science in wildly daft professor style. There’s plenty of talk about “you people of Earth,” neutrinos, worm holes, and starmen. There’s even an interspecies love affair for good measure.

If Egon of Ghostbusters made an album, this would be it. Slip on your silver glitter deely-boppers, adjust your Coke bottle glasses, and rock out, Earthlings.
(PO Box 1374 Manhasset, NY 11030)