Reviewing a record like
Let's Get Busy is virtually impossible -- simply expressing admiration for the Kids of Widney High (a group of teens from a Los Angeles school for handicapped students) means ignoring just how difficult the record is to actually sit through, while noting any sort of disapproval runs the risk of condescension, cynicism, or flat-out mockery. Further muddying the waters is that the label issuing the album is Ipecac, owned by ex-
Faith No More frontman/world-class wiseass Mike Patton, whose decision to release the disc seems like the most crass put-on imaginable. But while there's no denying the record's value for curiosity's sake, its novelty wears out quickly. What ultimately sinks
Let's Get Busy, however, is not the performances of the Kids themselves but the clichéd productions which back them; whether championed as a triumph of the spirit or denigrated as a riotous exercise in futility, it's not something you'll listen to more than once. ~ Jason Ankeny