The New Zealand “folk-comedy” duo Flight of the Conchords transcended folk and comedy on their debut LP, a soundtrack to the absurdist HBO show of the same name, with genre parodies that were great songs in their own right. Consisting of songs from this year’s second season, I Told You I Was Freaky doesn’t tweak that winning formula.
Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie remain experts at feigning cleverness (“Some people say rappers are invincible/We’re vincible”) and exploiting the lyrical excesses of artistes (“Her eyes were reflections of eyes”), and the bulk of the contemporary R&B pastiches allow them to explore their inner Abbott-&-Costello-meets-R.-Kelly. Even better, “Carol Brown” and “Demon Woman” are more about songcraft than they are about seizing the zeitgeist Weird Al–style.
Still, much like the show’s second season, this second disc fails to build on its predecessor, rehashing the same digs at male bravado, emotional insecurity, and musical eccentricity. I laughed, but only because I knew what to expect.
