Electric Six Albums (5)
What The Critics Say
Electric Six's fifth album kicks off with the brassy, Latin-tinged "Gay Bar Part Two," which has absolutely nothing to do with the original "Gay Bar" but everything to do with Dick Valentine and company's finely honed sense of the ridiculous. Harking back to one of their Fire hits with this songtitle was intended as a shameless marketing ploy, but Flashy feels like a shout-out to the band's first album in other ways: the band dials down the disco-rock of albums like Switzerland and I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me from Being the Master in favor of the gloriously bombastic hard rock-meets-new wave of Fire's album tracks. "Lovers," with its squealing guitar solos and fist-pumping "yeah!" backing vocals, could easily fit into a block of '80s rock programming, and the power ballad "Heavy Woman" boasts a fittingly big bassline and plenty of cowbell. Flashy also recalls Fire in that it's a little uneven. The best songs deliver all of the theatrical savoir faire Electric Six is known for: "Dirty Ball" is just as nasty and funky as its title, bouncing along on an irresistible drum breakdown; on "Formula 409," Valentine sings about clean kitchens and Middle Eastern affairs while guitars chug and saxophones wail; and "Graphic Designer" deserves a mention just for rhyming the famous art and design institute Pratt with "where it's at." Other songs just aren't as immediately gripping -- even though "We Were Witchy Witchy White Women" is about lesbian witches, it isn't especially catchy. Likewise, "Your Heat Is Rising" fails to connect despite its sizzling synths, massive guitars, and over-the-top falsetto vocals. More often than not, though, Flashy is lots of cleverly dumb fun, with songs like "Flashy Man" -- which boasts the choice put-down "he's the Xbox to your Atari" -- and the Jan Hammer-esque synth rock of "Transatlantic Flight" keeping it deliciously unclear if Electric Six are the highest of the lowbrow or the lowest of the highbrow. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
'I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me from Being the Master'
Release Date 1/1/2007
Tracks 16
Label Metropolis
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
As over the top as ever, Electric Six continues to satirically embrace the excess of sex, drugs, rock & roll -- and excess itself -- on I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me from Being the Master. Lyrics are fueled by an annoyance with present-day society (most notably: computers, fast food, television personalities, politicians, and Lenny Kravitz), but these themes are barely noticeable when paired with the throbbing dance beats and the campy Jack Black-ish mannerisms of Dick Valentine, who maintains the party atmosphere throughout. A high-concept album isn't necessarily what E6's fan base is looking to hear -- they want to have fun -- and it's nice to see that Valentine hasn't lost his acute sense of bombast. The macho swagger is still an important highlight of his shtick, and he continues to invent ludicrous catch phrases like "put a little mustard on it" and bellow them with a completely straight face over a kick drum and a noodling clarinet line. He questions whether his vocals were too sexy in "Dance Pattern," he hits the bottle with Ronald McDonald in "Down at McDonnellzz," and he breaks out his rhyming dictionary on "Rip It," with the absurd closing line, "Put me in motion/Drink the potion/Use the lotion/Drain the ocean/Cause commotion/Fake devotion/Entertain a notion/Be Nova Scotian." Sharing a lot of stylistic similarities with Switzerland (Electric Six's former album, not the country), this record could easily be labeled a counterpart to their last one. Songs are considerably darker and more experimental than the disco-influenced singles on their early releases, but even though the group has broadened their range, the hooks are still abundant. "When I Get to the Green Building" is a radio-friendly ballad in the vein of U2 and the Eels, and "Lucifer Airlines" an electro-jam that mirrors the loose swagger of Prince's "Erotic City." These are some solid moments, and the genre-spanning variety keeps the album interesting, but the group's best songs are always the energetic dance rockers that made them popular. There are enough innovative ideas on this record that it feels fresh, but it never strays too far from the Electric Six formula, making for an entertaining romp, as usual. ~ Jason Lymangrover, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Switzerland, the second album Electric Six released in 2006 (as well as their second for Metropolis), is also another album brought to you by the words "fire," "night," "party," and "city." But, while the band has their lyrical motifs down pat, it's not all business -- or rather, pleasure -- as usual. If their last two albums were all-night parties in cities on fire, then Switzerland has more of an inkling that there's a hung-over morning after just around the corner, most literally on "Pulling the Plug on the Party." This slightly ominous undercurrent makes itself known throughout the album, with songs are populated by sexy girls who might be diseased (and most likely are) and guys who might be monsters (ditto). Switzerland opens with "The Band in Hell," an angsty bit of heartache; granted, it's an angsty bit of heartache that also mentions that the singer's backing band includes the Devil on guitar and Hitler on drums, but it's still a surprisingly downbeat way to kick off the album. Likewise, the John Waters allusion in "Pink Flamingos"' title undercuts some of the song's brooding, twangy country-rock, yet the song represents a darker Electric Six than we've heard before. On the other hand, the band finds plenty of time to add fun back into Switzerland's tainted, slightly off vibe. This makes for some of Electric Six's best songs yet, whether it's the insistent ambivalence of the he-she rocker "Mr. Woman," the slinky, sleazy "Infected Girls," or "There's Something Very Wrong with Us So Let's Go Out Tonight," which might as well be the album's manifesto. There are also songs with titles that sound like double entendres or euphemisms even when they might not be, like "Chocolate Pope," the gleefully dumb throwaway that closes the album, and moments of pure, glorious cheese, such as "Slices of You" and "Rubber Rocket" (both of which are pretty clearly double entendres). That's not even mentioning "I Wish This Song Was Louder," the nod to "Werewolves of London" that is "I Buy the Drugs," or the gleaming, streamlined pop of "Night Vision," quintessentially Electric Six tracks one and all. Even if Switzerland is some of the band's most mature -- or least immature -- work yet, it's all relative; this restraint, what there is of it, makes them sound more focused, but they're still flamboyant and silly enough to keep fans happy. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Arriving in the U.S. a year after its U.K. release, Electric Six's second album, Señor Smoke, shows that it'll take more than having been without a record deal in their own country to derail them. After all, they've survived a name change and taken more than a few lineup shifts in stride. Through it all, they've displayed a very Detroit kind of scrappiness and sense of humor that is stronger than ever in their music (though it's hard to expect anything less from a band that names one of its B-sides "I Am Detroit"). The foundations of their sound still come from disco, synth pop, glam, and arena rock -- genres that had their last heydays several decades ago, which is oddly fitting for a band from a city often portrayed as having its best days in the past. Police sirens blare over Señor Smoke's first two tracks, and the electro-tinged "Devil Nights" pays homage to one of Detroit's most notorious "holidays" and the city's pioneering electronic music in one fell swoop. Dick Valentine is as charismatic and campy as ever, singing "live" as "lee-uhv" and "city" as "cit-ay," and selling lyrics like "be my dark angel/be my Capri Sun" and "I'm a man, not a disco ball!" Yet Señor Smoke doesn't just sound like Fire warmed-over. While it doesn't have a monster single like "Danger! High Voltage" or even "Gay Bar," overall Señor Smoke is a sharper, more focused album that somehow manages to be zany with a serious undercurrent. Electric Six find value in what is supposed to be trash and vice versa, taking aim at and sending up presidents, pop culture, conspicuous consumption, and media saturation. As on Fire, they make their points with heroic doses of tongue-in-cheek humor and sincere camp. On "Rock and Roll Evacuation," "Iraq" is rhymed with "rock" (as in "you don't know how to"), while "Bite Me" is as much about siphoning gas as it is about sex. "Jimmy Carter" is the album's power ballad, and the Electric Six equivalent of "Under the Bridge" (although this song is intentionally over-the-top); "Future Boys," meanwhile, rattles off a list of pod-person-like corporate lackeys to jerky new-new wave. Señor Smoke plays like a concept album, moving from darker, rock-based tracks to more playful, plastic synth pop like the brilliantly named closer, "The Future Is in the Future." Even the cover of Queen's "Radio Ga Ga" fits in well with the album's overall themes. Like Fire, Señor Smoke runs out of steam toward the end; for the first half of the album, it's hard to keep up with them, but by the second half, it's hard for them to keep it up. Nevertheless, this is Electric Six's strongest work to date, and the fans who have stuck with them through their trials and tribulations won't be disappointed. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
If Electric Six never contributed anything to pop music besides "Danger! High Voltage" -- one of the most immediate, crazed singles in years -- the band would still have the distinction of being one of the most unique-sounding one-hit wonders in recent memory. Fire doesn't necessarily offer proof that this won't be Electric Six's ultimate fate, but it does suggest that they have more tricks up their sleeve than might be expected. It's true that "Danger! High Voltage" is easily the best song on Fire, an addictive mix of stylishness and silliness that sounds like some kind of bizarre love triangle between the Rapture, Tenacious D, and Andrew W.K., but several songs work nearly as well. "Dance Commander"'s big arena rock choruses, zooming keyboards, and yelped falsettos recall their big hit without merely copying it; "Improper Dancing" is surprisingly funky, with its brittle guitars and slick disco feel providing the perfect setting for the band's macho flippancy. "Gay Bar" is more on the garage/punk side of their sound, confusing war and violence with sex and dancing, with loads of adolescent sexual innuendo (but is there any other kind?), as is "Getting into the Jam," which is almost certainly not about discovering a classic mod-punk band. The power ballad "I'm the Bomb" might be the second-best song on Fire, awash in gurgling synths and shiny guitars as singer Dick Valentine shamelessly delivers lines like "Who elected you judge and jury in the body of a beautiful girl?" The rest of the album has an appealingly throwaway quality, spanning the new wave sendups "Synthesizer" and "Electric Demons in Love" as well as the campy arena rock of "Fashion and Vengeance" and "She's White." Though they're not on par with the band's best moments, they do hold up much better than might be anticipated, and prove that Electric Six's m.o. of inflating rock clichés to grotesque proportions, adding a dash of tongue-in-cheek pomposity, and then laughing at the results can generate more than just a great single. Granted, that single is still the reason to own Fire, but fans of that song probably won't feel burned by the rest of the album. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
