For this week's Rapid Fire post, I'm once again choosing three albums by the same band and yes, it's a Hard Rock band again. However, since tomorrow is April Fool's Day, this band also qualifies as Mock Rock. There aren't a huge number of albums by great Mock Rock bands to choose from but since my favourite Mock Rock outfit happens to only have three albums in their back catalogue (at the time of writing this), the choice was obvious.
I used to think this band were kind of tacky but after watching the film and listening to their music, I grew to love them. Now, Tenacious D are one of my favourite bands and I've seen them three times so far, so let's take a look at their three albums starting with their 2001 self-titled debut.
1. Tenacious D - Tenacious D
Tenacious D (album) may look pretty sinister but it's all part of the gag. Their music isn't heavy, devil worshipping music from Hell but sometimes the duo of Jables (Jack Black) and Kage (Kyle Gass) like to stray into those territories with the help of their backing band. Album opener "Kielbasa" is built around an acoustic melody and amusing lyrics that I shouldn't need to analyse for you to get. It soon becomes heavier but it's a strong representation for the rest of the album, as I once claimed in a blog post on great album openers.
Most songs are built around an acoustic melody and lyrics about sex, food or random concepts ranging from friendship ("Friendship") to karate ("Karate") although some start off heavy and stay that way ("The Road", "Rock Your Socks"). However, the biggest amount of variety on the album comes from the blending of comedic skits with Hard Rock tracks. It might make the album a bit hard to listen to in one sitting (unless you like brief amusing interludes between your tunes) but they're still pretty funny.
I recommend listening to this album all the way through at least once but after that, you're probably better off just picking tracks you like to enjoy now and then. Fortunately, there are plenty of these songs to choose from as Tenacious D have a habit of writing quality tunes in short bursts that tend to stray from the traditional Rock song formula.
1. Kielbasa
2. One Note Song
3. Tribute
4. Wonderboy
5. Hard Fucking
6. Fuck Her Gently
7. Explosivo
8. Dio
9. Inward Singing
10. Kyle Quit The Band
11. The Road
12. Cock Pushups
13. Lee
14. Friendship Test
15. Friendship
16. Karate Schnitzel
17. Karate
18. Rock Your Socks
19. Drive-Thru
20. Double Team
21. City Hall/I Believe/Malibu Nights
ALBUM RATING - 7/10
2. The Pick Of Destiny - Tenacious D
Critics panned this album for being a disappointing follow-up to the debut, along with needing knowledge of the film to appreciate completely. However, if you want an album that's entirely music without any of the skits, The Pick Of Destiny is great. Album opener "Kickapoo" spins an entertaining yarn of young JB's oppressive family and his journey to the city of fallen angels where the ocean meets the sand. It sounds like the opening song from an R-rated Rock opera and sets the tone for the rest of the album well.
Unlike their debut, the backing band have more of a presence on these songs with fewer tracks built around acoustic riffs, even though a few crop up here and there ("Classico", "History") and plenty ramping up the heavy material to the awesome degree ("Master Exploder", "Beelzeboss (The Final Showdown)"). Whilst I can understand the complete lack of skits on the album (there's a film and it's funnier than the entire first album!), I can also understand how it's quite difficult to enjoy The Pick Of Destiny unless you've seen the film.
The songs on this album don't carry enough of the film's narrative to make it a standalone success so if anything, it's more of a soundtrack than a brand new studio album. However, if bands like Queen can include a soundtrack in their discography then so can Tenacious D, especially when it's as good as this one. I recommend watching the film before listening to this album but if you do want to listen to any songs as a taster first, I recommend tracks one, five, seven and fifteen.
1. Kickapoo
2. Classico
3. Baby
4. Destiny
5. History
6. The Government Totally Sucks
7. Master Exploder
8. The Divide
9. Papagenu (He's My Sassafrass)
10. Dude (I Totally Miss You)
11. Break-In City (Storm The Gate!)
12. Car Chase City
13. Beelzeboss (The Final Showdown)
14. POD
15. The Metal
ALBUM RATING - 7/10
3. Rize Of The Fenix - Tenacious D
The band's third/currently latest album may have somewhat of an...irregular album cover but the material on the record is a perfect blend of the first two albums. Coming off a tour that ended up losing money and all the aforementioned negative press, the dynamic duo needed some time to climb back to the top. Six years, to be exact (so still less than Metallica needed). Album opener "Rize Of The Fenix" explains this story with heavy riffs, several acts and the best explosion sound effect I've ever heard. To quote the chorus, the fuckin' D is back!
It's fair to say that the strongest material comes in the first half of the album with classic D material ("Roadie"), Hard Hard Rock ("Deth Starr") and an amusing skit ("Classical Teacher"). Once the album gets about 2/3 of the way through, things start to take a downward spiral with less energetic music and less inspired lyrics ("39", "Rock Is Dead"). There are some exceptions but even those could've been better; "To Be The Best" needed another verse (and the band have added that extra verse in certain live gigs) but it's still good.
I don't think anybody's saying this is the band's best album but it's certainly one of the better albums. It rides the line and pleases fans of Tenacious D and The Pick Of Destiny but most importantly, it doesn't spell the end for the band. The creative well isn't dry and, if the gigs I've been to are any indication, Jables and Kage still enjoy rocking out. Rize Of The Fenix is a solid entry to get the band back on track and a fourth album should try to capture the same magic as the first. More skits, more songs about sex, more actual songs that could be heard on the radio instead of just two-minute snippets that couldn't be fleshed out. Hopefully we'll get another album from the boys soon, as it's been five years since this came out.
1. Rize Of The Fenix
2. Low Hangin' Fruit
3. Classical Teacher
4. Senorita
5.Deth Starr
6. Roadie
7. Flutes & Trombones
8. The Ballad Of Hollywood Jack And The Rage Kage
9. Throw Down
10. Rock Is Dead
11. They Fucked Our Asses
12. To Be The Best
13. 39
ALBUM RATING - 7/10
Triple 7s, whadda ya know? I definitely didn't phone this one in!
I'm currently dealing with technical issues regarding my laptop and the Internet so blog posts may go on hold for a while. I'll still aim for an average of one a week but if I can't meet that, there's always my Twitter account.
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