Comedian Kyle Gordon needs no introduction. His irreverent humour and creativity are well known both online and offline. While his career has taken him to a range of live performing events including comedy festivals, Comic-con, and also given him the chance to team up with names such as the Jonas Brothers and appear on televised events, most people will know him from the viral hit “Planet of the Bass”.
This album, “Kyle Gordon is Great”, however, spans multiple genres and styles,
showcasing Kyle to be a multifaceted musician as well as comedian. Tongue firmly planted in cheek, Kyle does an amazing job of parodying the Euro-dance music
craze of the 90s and 2000s. With ridiculous sounding lyrics like “Women are my favourite guy” and “are you the girl of the love?,” it is reminiscent of how said dance hits often had lyrics that resulted from a mistranslation or ended up unintentionally hilarious – I’m looking at you Britney and the “Baby One More Time” lyrics.
The track itself is danceable, accessible, singable, and very much an ear worm. Throwing the artificially deep sounding “Planet of the bass” line out over top of some well executed female vocals, the overall sound would not be dissimilar to bands like Aqua, with lyrics fitting of a Toybox album. Plenty of FX and other augmentations are littered through the track, barking the DJ name at the start, and weird sirens complete the imitation.
“Ugliest Girl on the Beach” could almost be a song about a certain Family Guy character – Quagmire. A guy who is willing to sleep with anyone as long as she is female. Not because he is a good person or cares, but because he is so depraved he can’t control himself – come on, if you’d do it in front of “the kids on the beach” yup you are a Quagmire. The overall vibe of the song is somewhere between amateur open mic and slam poetry in a jazz club. Plenty of nonsensical scat sounds, acoustic guitar, and rambling lyrics thankfully do not hide but rather showcase that Kyle has a solid singing voice, if you can get past exactly him describing a girl that possibly looks like Baron Harkonnen from the original Dune. For extra laughs, watch the accompanying video for the song – the looks he gets from Antonio Frankfurt are hilarious.
“My Life is the Worst” is an excellent take on late 90s punk, and even though the lyrics are off the wall, this reviewer can think of some well known punk songs that are even more explicit and angry. While the track is not family friendly, it does a good job of encapsulating the emo culture craze, including an accompanying video with al the costume and makeup fitting the genre, and taking place at school which so many of the songs of that genre did. However, one could be forgiven for laughing at the track as this reviewer did, at how over the top it some parts become, and the My Chemical Romance/Sum 41 aesthetic of the video are just “chef’s kiss*.
Rounding out some of the other offerings, “Girls Are the Best” is a country music offering with solid music and is very easily singable and memorable. The lyrics are pretty simple and cheeky talking about how all “good people are girls” and “girls are rich and fast”, and even tells all the men to “stand and hang their head in shame”. “Crucial Life Lessons for Kids” is a song of bad advice modelled on kids show music that extols morals in song – “don’t read” and “put a plastic bag on your head” come to mind. There is even a good old drinking song that one would be forgiven for mistaking for a Dropkick Murphys or Flogging Molly track, but spiced with profanity.
Parody as with all comedy is subjective, but it’s refreshing to see a performer like Kyle Gordon who manages to put some cutting commentary in that one notices if they are looking for it. In fact, this is music that on the surface is pretty wild and may be off-putting to some, but for those who love sarcastic, biting, satirical works, Kyle Gordon is Great is not to be missed.
The album is one where its obvious all participants were having fun and just having a great time being a little wild and a lot crazy. It’s almost as if “South Park” became a genre of music. If you are a Weird Al fan you may like this. If you are a Lonely Island fan you definitely will not want to miss these tracks.
FINAL GRADE: A-
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