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Tenacious D
Tenacious D
Epic Records, 2001
REVIEW BY: Matthew Turk
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 11/07/2001
Before I started writing this review, I listened to this albumbetween forty and fifty times - over and over and over. I'd listento it in the shower, while studying, while reading, and evenovernight once or twice. I also reread all of my previous reviews,looking for a couple key phrases, none of which I found. I'd neverlabeled a band in that oh-so-pretentious manner of "Not Being TrueTo Their Origins."
Well, as it turns out, Tenacious D really hasn't been true totheir previous identity. They were a side-splittingly crude,ostensibly Satan-empowered acoustic duo based around power chords.They're still most of those things, but what they've become is anultra-polished rock band, with help from a couple notables from themusic community. Is this bad? Well, no, not really - but it'sdifferent than I expected, and it loses a bit of novelty.
The album starts out really nicely - JB and KG (Jack Black andKyle Gass) are chatting, being themselves, and they burst intosong. It's all fairly laid-back, candor-filled dialogue that workswell for bringing a bit of charm. The songs start to diverge fromthe familiar versions when the electric guitars drop in heavily on"Tribute" (which, as they say, isn't the greatest song in the world- just a tribute!) and Explosivo.
"Wonderboy" - which has evidently gotten a lot of radio playlately - is a neat song about super heroes. It's followed up by oneof the most crude bits of dialogue I've ever heard, and then justafterward is "Fuck Her Gently" - one of the most beautiful, lovelysongs about having rough intercourse I've ever heard. "Dio" is aplea to Dio to set aside the torch - Gass and Black want in on theaction.
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