Started in 1998, Flight of the Conchords is New Zealand's fifth most popular folk comedy duo, at least that's what they claim. This duo stars Jermaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, and they have gained a lot of popularity, with a BBC radio show and an HBO TV series both named after their band. Today, I'll look at the music side of their career, looking at their albums and the songs featured on the TV show. So, here are my thoughts on the music of Flight of the Conchords.
The first album from Flight of the Conchords, Folk the World Tour, was released in 2002 and was recorded live at The Classic in Alkland and Bats Theatre in Wellington, expect the two bonus tracks that were studio recorded. The album includes songs like "Bus Driver's Song", a song about a tour bus guide who seems to have regrets in his life, "Albi", a fairy tale about a racist dragon, and "Frodo", a Lord of the Rings song who Bret played an elf in. These songs were written and performed over the four years they already had under their belt. It's in a way, similar to the old Weird Al live performances. Instead of Al on accordion, however, it's two guys who don't get exited about anything playing guitars. The songs are great and fun to listen to.
The second album, The Distant Future, was released in 2007. Since it's an EP, there are only six songs on the album. The songs include "Robots", a song about robots taking over the world in the distant future of 2000, "Most Beautiful Girl (In the Room)", an oddly specific song about a man going to a party and falling for the most beautiful girl in the room, and "Not Crying", a song about someone trying to explain why they're not actually crying about someone leaving them.These songs have a lot more instrumentation, with a synthesizer beat in "Robots" to add to the futuristic feel of the song, and "Not Crying" being completely done on piano. Once again, these songs have been written and performed in the past, and they are just as funny, and a little sad in the case of "Not Crying", as in the previous album. It even won a Grammy for Best Comedy Album in 2008.
The third album by Flight of the Conchords is just called Flight of the Conchords. It was released in 2008, the same time as the TV show of the same name premiered on HBO. Following the trend of the first two albums, these were all written over the length of their ten year long career, and features four songs already released, but rerecorded and remastered. The genre of the songs are much more spread out with some rap, like "Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymnoceros" with Bret as the Rhymnocerous and Jermaine as the Hiphopopotamus, alternative rock, like "Bowie" as a tribute to David Bowie, and folk comedy that made them famous in the first place, like "Foux du Fafa" with the entire song sung in French. Almost all the songs, and others as well, were preformed on HBO's Flight of the Conchords TV show, and almost all the tracks mirror the songs on the show, while some have minor alterations. The album debuted as number three on the Billboard 200 in America, and it also won Album of the Year at the New Zealand Music Awards. I keep on saying this, but it's a great album, and it's my favorite that they made simply because it has the most songs and the widest verity of music. You get to hear them satirize and parody a wide amount of subjects and genres of music.
The latest album Flight of the Conchords made, I Told You I Was Freaky, was released in 2009. As opposed to taking their time with the song writing, Bret and Jermaine had to write and record all the songs on the album in two years while shooting a TV show. This does show in the songs themselves. They are funny, but not as funny as other songs they have made. They do have moments when they do shine however. Some songs that stand out are "Carol Brown", a song about a guy who's ex-girlfriends dumped him in various ways and hoping this girl is the right one for him, "We're Both in Love with a Sexy Lady", a very nice parody of "Same Girl" by R. Kelly and Usher, and "Friends", a song about what friends do together. This album didn't do as well as the previous album, only making it to 19 on the Billboard 200. All in all, the album is not bad. It's just not a masterpiece compared to the other albums they have made.
Overall, Flight of the Conchords is a great, funny duo. While still not really well known, they do have a cult following. What are they doing now? They both have acting careers apart from their TV show, which ended in 2009 in it's second season. They guess stared on The Simpsons, and Jermaine has done acting and voice work for multiple movies and TV shows. Bret is acting as well, coming back to the Lord of the Rings universe in the upcoming The Hobbit movies as Lindir. He also still does music, being music supervisor in The Muppets. They also claim they are making a movie. While HBO says they don't have plans for it, it doesn't mean the two aren't doing it. They might go for it on their own, which I would love to see. To conclude, if you haven't heard of Flight of the Conchords, now you have. I recommend listening to them for a good laugh.
Now for some questions:
What do you think of Flight of the Conchords?
What do you think of their show if you have seen it?
Would you watch their movie if they did make it?
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