Funplex
Astralwerks
03/25/2008
Funplex is that giant box that catches your eye in the waning hours of Christmas Eve. It's that gift that's slightly obscured by the limbs of the tree that just by its size has to be the greatest gift ever given. You approach, cautiously, and the sparkling paper dazzles the senses. You take the card into your clammy hand, open the fold, and see that your grandmother has signed the bottom. Your heart sinks, because despite the exquisite trappings and the promise of grandeur, you know that it's just a huge box of underwear.
2008 has revealed a sad truth, the idea of a new B-52's album is far more exciting than the actual result. While "Hot Corner" is undoubtedly one of the great dance songs of the year, it is surrounded by a supporting cast weak enough to make Johnny Bravo into a star, even in his current-day physique. Fred Schneider is impossibly both under and over used… figure that one out. When his barking, flamboyant vocals are needed they seem auspiciously absent, and when totally inappropriate you can expect to hear a heartbreaking soliloquy while waiting anxiously for your cue to scream "ROCK LOBSTER!"
The true tragedy of this record is how close it came to actually being great. I can't overstress how fantastic "Hot Corner" and "Ultraviolet" are, being the kind of song that only the B-52's are capable of creating. They transcend genre and time, managing to be the kind of masterpiece that "Love Shack" echoed for both subsequent and prior generations. However, a single (or two) surrounded by an album's worth of filler doesn't impress, it only disappoints. While Athens' Finest released a career defining album only a week earlier, the B-52's have created a promotional single for a reunion tour.
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