This album should not be as much fun as it is. It sounds about half finished; it sounds disingenuous; it sounds self-consciously goofy. But underneath all of its surface ridiculousness there lurk genuine hooks and (almost as if deliberately hidden) a certain amount of technical sophistication. Listen past the vocal chaos of "Iotdwykiyhtbr" and you'll hear a quiet sort of tunefulness; listen past the hokey nerdiness of "My Favorite Hair." and you'll hear apple-cheeked music hall melodicism of the kind that
Paul McCartney used to write when
John Lennon was safely out of the room. None of this excuses the album's worst excesses, some of which coexist in uneasy proximity to its most brilliant moments. "Snowday!" is a stupid song that tries, and utterly fails, to double down on its stupidity and circle all the way around into naïve genius; "In Your Face Suckiness!! (Our Blood Is Rainbows)" is simply in-your-face sucky. But there's still something about this mess that sticks in your head, and a certain type of person may find it impossible to stop hitting replay. Others (many others) will just snort and turn it off after a couple of tracks.