Epic Records 85210
HBOAnd it is there that album finds its principle failure. Throughout their
Epic Records debut, The D are backed by an all-star band including former
Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl and Phish keyboardist Page McConnell. So much of
the The D's appeal – at least on the show – came in the imagined drum solos,
the invisible smoke machines, and the non-existent roadies. Actually having
a band is profoundly anti-climactic. The normally inventive production of
the Dust Brothers only seems to get in the way of the non-stop rocking that
The D are undoubtedly capable of.
Explaining why, precisely, the album is funny is surely an irrelevant task.
It is funny, far more so than Adam Sandler or any number of other
assholes who have laid obscenities over acoustic guitars. The comedy bits
between songs even hold up on repeated listenings. Well, most of 'em do,
anyway. Though they begin to get a bit strained towards the end of the disc,
Black's sheer magnetism carries the day and manages to translate flawlessly
to the aural realm. At any rate, they're necessary to convey just what The D
are all about: the relationship between JB and KG. It is a fault that the
record relies on different explanatory stories for the various songs than
the TV show did, thus breaking scene with The D's reality.
But, yeah. The D fucking rock.
