LAZYBOY TV
s/t
Universal
NORMAN NAWROCKI
Duckwork
Les Pages Noir
· Beats and speeches.
Both Lazyboy TV and Norman Nawrocki have exactly the same musical approach. Remember in the late ’80s when those John Hughes movies came out with soundtracks that included big beats backing dialogue from the movie. These albums are a lot like that, except that in addition to disembodied samples, the lyrical content also includes philosophical diatribes and borderline stand-up-comedy routines. But, while Lazyboy TV rely on fortune-cookie wisdom and propagating gender stereotypes, Nawrocki actually has something to say.
The bargain-basement club tracks of Lazyboy TV are dressed up with a bit of actual singing, but for the most part, the several lyricists that show up on the album are content to spout gems like, "The average person swallows eight spiders in a year," and "Why don’t women blink during foreplay? They don’t have time." This may be amusing at first, but aside from the acidic "Underwear Goes Inside the Pants" (a rant that touches on paranoia, terrorism, homelessness and irony), the album is so empty that if you do go back a second time, there is nothing there for you.
Conversely, Nawrocki has crafted a stimulating concept record that wades through the dystopia of a world living in the wake of 9-11. One track features a mock-classroom scenario where a young girl as part of her lesson runs down the list of nations that the U.S. has invaded (it takes almost six minutes). Another piece is composed of frightened answering-machine messages left by Nawrocki’s father after a marathon viewing session of CNN. Both of these examples are chilling, but more importantly they call into question the role of the military and media in our U.S.-dominated world. Where Lazyboy TV are content to go for the cheap laugh, Nawrocki creates aural installation that, while completely listenable, still has something pertinent to say.
LAZYBOY TV 2/5
NAWROCKI 4/5
JASON LEWIS
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