None-too-clever satire laps against the shores of humdrum jazz-pop in Pando’s latest excursion into the obscure.
Occupying the rarefied environs of the satire band, this fourth album by London-based Pando aims for the territory between Tim Minchin’s leftfield, early musical comedy and a very British iteration of Tenacious D’s crudeness.
He ropes in a jazz drummer, bassist and some squeaky backing singers for a run-through of cheesy jazz, largely cringeworthy lyrics and, well, not much else.
The odd smile is raised, such as on the Daily Mail-baiting Up Sticks, which samples a parliamentary speech by Theresa May among right-wing outbursts from Pando himself, all set to twee lounge music.
But other targets crudely skewered, among cod-jazz interludes, include cruddy indie-rockers (on the cheap-keyboard, gameshow theme tune The Suckies), American country musicians (the harmonica-dusted Dirk Smuts) and Maggie Thatcher (With Denis).
The humour just isn’t clever enough, and so this is hardly a set you will find yourself revisiting, either for the jokes or the pop-jazz crossovers.
2 stars
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