Molayem ART Magazine International Art Magazine
Though touring his straight-up rock album Songs Without Jokes, the New Zealand comic can’t help but stray into his customary funny-haha habitat
As one half of New Zealand’s self-proclaimed “fourth-most-popular guitar-based digi-bongo a cappella-rap-funk-comedy duo” and a composer of tunes from the likes of the Muppets and the Simpsons, Flight of the Conchords’ Bret McKenzie is best known for singing songs laden with jokes. It might come as a surprise to some, then, that his debut solo album – released earlier this year – offers quite the opposite experience. Titled, categorically, Songs Without Jokes, it’s a collection of road trip-ready rock numbers inspired by the likes of Harry Nilsson and Steely Dan, with McKenzie pairing rich horn and piano arrangements with lyrics about lost love, LA and environmental disaster. We’re not talking Father John Misty levels of west coast-based existential crisis, but it’s also decidedly not a comedy record.
