Mucky Pup - A Boy In a Man’s World + Now [Album]

I Scream Records

October 22, 2009, 10:42 PM

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Need some retro frat-boy rock in your life? Need not one but TWO albums of this puerile stuff? If the answer is ‘yes’ you would be looking for the single disc re-issue of Mucky Pup’s “A Boy In a Man’s World” from 1985 and “Now” from 1991.

The four piece from New Jersey had a ten year career between 1985 and the mid-90s with subsequent re-union tours. It’s astonishing to think that such one-dimensional juvenile rap-rock could sustain such a span of years especially since Mucky Pup’s contribution to the genre is neither pioneering nor original. The production on songs such as ‘You Stink But I Love You,’ ‘Death by Cholesterol’ and ‘A Boy In a Man’s World’ show their age: chunky guitar riffs and whiny vocals to the fore, trebly drums and keys pushed back in the mix. Given followers such as The Bloodhound Gang and Alien Ant Farm the songs do not feel wholly from another era but they are dated - in content as well as sound.

There’s an attempt at political satire in places. ‘Reagan Knew’ takes a swipe at the cowboy president over the Oliver North Iran-Contra scandal claiming “he knew” - it’s about as politically incisive as its limp ska-pop-metal is musically memorable. The target in ‘PTL’ is Christian evangelical preachers. And guess what? They are only interested in your money, Mucky Pup inform an astonished world.

There are occasional moments of guilty-pleasure-enjoyment that in a generous frame of mind could sit alongside “Licensed To Ill” or “Hooray For Boobies.” ‘Landscapers’ is the tale of petty rivalries between gardening crews, set to furious hardcore riffs and pounding drums, with a whole array of comedy voices and the not-quite-immortal line “I’ll take these hedge clippers / And cut your dick in two.” But such moments are too infrequent. Instead there is too much disposable and un-amusing clutter: ‘Whasky Wabbit’ a comedy-rap-metal take on the Elmer Fudd theme; ‘Little Pigs’ is a comedy-rap-metal take on the nursery rhyme; ‘Batman’ is a comedy-rap-metal take on the ….. well you get the idea.

Partially interesting as artefacts on their time, sadly neither album is in anyway musically essential. And together they become the sum of their (worst) parts and a real listening chore. This is one puppy that ain’t found a new home with me.

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