Someone please take the vocoder away from Knodel. Like a joke that'skind of funny the first time and stops being funny soon after, Knodel'sTrans-Am-meets-They-Might-Be-Giants 80s-metal/synth-rock is cornywithout being very clever. Numerous references to "Knodel" - Knodellikes to rock, Knodel unchained, Don't fear for Knodel, It's a Knodelworld, etc - are probably hilarious to the members of the band, but inme they illicit the rolling of the eyes. The vocals don't help - whenthey're not vocoded (and they're vocoded a LOT) the two voices soundlike a duet between TMBG's John Linnell and the falsetto from "The LionSleeps Tonight." The choices in keyboard sounds leaves a lot to bedesired, too. Granted, there are a few moments on the disc that mightmake you think, "OK, Knodel's not THAT bad," but these moments are fewand far-between. The best moment on the entire album is the first 45seconds of the opening title track, and it's all downhill from there.It's not that I don't like music that has a sense of humor - I reallydo, and I even appreciate the cover of 80s cheese-metal group Manowar's"Kingdom Come" - but the music has got to be worthwhile at the sametime. I guess I should give Knodel credit for the fact that they'vebeen making retro synth rock for four years or so (since before it wasso dang hip), but do we really need another band ironically singing,"We wanna rock, we wanna rock you now"? Doesn't the joke ever get old?Apparently to Knodel, it doesn't.
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