The B-52s are too old for me to remember when they were last culturally relevant and too new (or maybe just too campy) for my dad to have instilled in me a vicarious appreciation for the band.
In fact, if you were to cut two or three songs from the band's catalogue, I might have never heard of the B-52s in the first place.
But Funplex, the B-52s first studio release in a decade and a half, still sounds fresh.
Though none of the tracks are huge departures from past B-52s work -- and none of them really measure up to the strongest of B-52s' catalogue -- there's still nobody else that shares the same sound. New wave isn't so new anymore, but the B-52s still have a uniqueness that makes it sound progressive.
When you have three different vocalists -- and one of them is Fred Schneider -- you don't need to worry about diversity anyway, but terrific production, especially on the vocals, makes it an even more dynamic listen. And Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson still have a remarkable knack for melody.
More modern electronic equipment with that same B-52s signature style makes a song like album-opener "Pump" sound like REM channeled through Trent Reznor, while the bass-heavy "Juliet of Spirits" sounds a whole lot like the Blue Man Group. The driving guitar that pervades songs like Funplex's title track is enough to carry the album even if the vocals were to ever falter (which actually doesn't happen once).
Funplex, like basically all B-52s music, is party music, and it seem impossible that a bunch of people in their 50s could be this boisterous. But high-energy tracks like "Too Much to Think About" and "Dancing Now" and "Ultraviolet" (well, all of them, really) are incontrovertible evidence to the contrary.
And the lyrics push further the party-all-the-time aesthetic.
On "Hot Corner," a song about partying at a bus stop, Schneider yelps in his trademark sprechgesang, "Hey y'all/Last call/Last chance to dance," and on "Keep the Party Going," one of many Pierson/Wilson harmonies demands, "Take this party to the White House lawn/Things are down and dirty in Washington."
What remains unclear amid such forward mandate of perpetual jubilation is just how serious this band is. Obviously, they like to have a good time -- and Funplex is assuredly a means to that end -- but how self-aware are they about how contrived this is? If the B-52s were an out-of-touch band from like, Stockholm or Kiev, it would be easy to laugh at Funplex; because the band hails from Athens, Ga., however, it makes more sense to laugh with it.
In embracing this cartoonish idea of constantly getting down, these middle-aged merrymakers avoid the pitfalls of other negligent rock and roll retreads, who often take themselves way more seriously than a 50-year-old in leather pants ever should.
And even if Funplex is a total flop, at least they're having a good time.
Grade: C+
