Summertime With Unagi

Discussing Unagi's last album, I questioned whether his use of dated references and old school punchlines was an ironic evocation of one of the album's running themes of an older head out of his time or just his tastes.  Well, with the arrival of Western Mass Hysteria, his second fully vocal album but his fifteenth(!) in total, I guess I have my answer.  Because he hits us off with a slew of dad joke similes right from the jump: "Unagi is my moniker, my non de plume.  Down like Short Round from The Temple of Doom.  Transform chrysalis, Cocoon, Hume Cronyn.  Stay legendary like the 47 Ronin."  So calling it old school might be a little unfair; he mixed a little hashtag rap in there.

Now, regular readers will probably know by now that this is one of the easiest ways to make me "nope" right out of a song.  Pop culture references that seem to just be there to endear the listener through fond recognition ("hey, he said "The Temple of Doom."  I liked that movie!) or twee cutesiness, as opposed to making a worthwhile point about it ("Elvis was a hero to most, but he never meant shit to me, you see? Straight-out racist that sucker was, simple and plain.  Motherfuck him and John Wayne, 'cause I'm black and I'm proud!  I'm ready, I'm hyped plus I'm amped.  Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamp" has weight) or just being genuinely clever.  With that cocoon stuff, I get the movie reference, but I guess he's just saying that he's grown into a beautiful butterfly in terms of musicianship?  And I've hated the hashtag gimmick since "Supa Dupa."

And the album continues like that.

So it is a testament to the man's abilities that this album recovers.

Unagi manages to tap a very unique vein that doesn't always work; but it often does, with his signature, laid back, easy listening energy, with a tongue-in-cheek attitude.  The best way I can describe it is to say: imagine if Tribe plateaued at "I Left My Wallet In El Segundo."  Yeah, that means no Midnight Marauders or anything that came after; but you can't say you didn't enjoy "El Segundo" when it came out.  So applying that notion to Unagi, first of all no, the dad jokes and celebrity name-dropping doesn't stop (don't get me started on "Favorite 80s Ladies").  But some of them were eliciting genuine smiles, like the "AARP, yeah, you know me" hook for his song about getting old.  And things feel considerably more robust as we pass the first couple of tracks and hit more conceptual songs.  "Small Town Style" is a cool summertime groove; and "Just Another Bank Robber" goes back to being silly, but it's smart and fun in a way that's impossible to grimace at.

I likened Unagi to the Peanuts and Corn crew before, and that comparison totally still stands.  How you feel about one will surely determine how you feel about the other.

And given that this guy's first thirteen albums were instrumental projects, it makes sense that the production does a lot of the heavy lifting.  His ode to his wife, "Date Night," might be a little corny, but the instrumental is great.  The MCing will prove divisive for those who check this out (the next 36 Chambers this ain't); you've really got to be in the right mood.  But you can't front on the beats.  The samples throughout WMH are so smooth and jazzy.  And the scratch breakdown on "Flyin' High," by DJ Toro Bravo is brilliant.  I absolutely will be revisiting it over the years, and this is coming from a guy who has amassed enough records and tapes over a lifetime to literally bury a whole family.  I've reached that stage where I honestly don't need anymore new music in my life... I figure playing everything from beginning to end one more time should take me to my grave.  But I'm gonna be making room to play this some more.

So like his last record, this is available via his bandcamp on vinyl as a single LP, limited to 200 copies, in a full-color picture cover that does a pretty good job conjuring up the album's the tone (all it needs is a Fozzi Bear somewhere in those trees).  And as you can see above, it also comes with a color insert depicting his complete discography and all the WMH lyrics (break our your magnifying glass!).  There's also an even smaller run (100 copies) of CDs available if that's more your speed.