However: if it's really all fun and games, as the staggeringly insipid Detroit six-piece might lead you to believe, the music doesn't give it away. before them, are not in the business of satire. If only there wasn't that lingering sense of vacuous sincerity. Granted, it's not all as sophomorically abominable as 'Gay Bar' some of it's actually even kinda funny, in a Men Without Hats sorta way ('Radio message from HQ/ Dance commander, we love you'), but let's be direct: these guys mention 'fire' in nearly every song (that, or 'going to war' on the dancefloor), and the subject of 'Naked Pictures' is none other than- whoa-ho-ho!- your mother.Ĭlunky power-chord progressions, tinny percussion, and distant synths complete the gruesome aura of kitsch surrounding Fire- and that wouldn't be so bad if we could at least dismiss it as pure novelty. When snarling frontman Dick Valentine subjects me to lyrics like, 'I've got something to put in you/ At the gay bar,' I just wonder if, upon the crazy success of their incredible disco/rock hybrid, 'Danger! High Voltage', these guys simply decided it was easier to just give up than to try topping it.

Is it that I don't 'get' the Electric Six? Believe me, I get it it's just that once I got it, I started looking for a way to get rid of it.