Lazybone / Johnny Royal - Our Nation Vol. 4
Rating: 6.4
Label: Drug Records
Release Date: June, 2000
Relevant Links: Buy it here.
Drug Recoreds are back with another installment of the Our Nation series. This installment pairs ska-punk pop band Lazybone with the unstoppable fury that is Johnny Royal.
Lazybone kick off the album with a bunch of craptastic ska influenced jams. Ska has never really been my thing, and the tunes Lazybone have to offer are nothing to really get excited about. That being said, they aren’t really bad songs either…they’re just kind of bland. A few of the songs have decent parts, but these are quickly aborted. For example, one of the riffs in “비상구,” is close to being rocking, but the rest of the song is boring paint by numbers ska. The laid back, jazzy verses of “Why Don’t You Smile?” (complete with Bobby McFerrin whistling) transitioning into manic punk with wailing guitar solos is pretty decent as well, but the song is entirely too long, and I for one was bored by the end of the song. That’s the problem with the bulk of the Lazybone tracks: they are just far too long. I really don’t care to hear a ska riff for five minutes before moving on to a different track that has a “different” ska riff (again being played entirely too long).
Additionally these songs feature a ton of non-ironic 1980’s style wailing guitar solos. Not since Van Halen 1984 has there been a higher concentration of wailing guitar solos (and guitar face) in an album.
Johnny Royal can be summed up with one word, and that word is “Awesome!” There seem to be Johnny Royal modes of rocking: hardcore and rap. When in rap mode (on tracks like “로보트 나라 [Robot Country]”) they sound kind of like the Beastie Boys. When in hardcore mode they are fucking insane. “빈대부랑자의 격파차기,” starts off with a sample of a woman singing in a traditional Korean folk style before off the wall drums and guitars come in assaulting your ears like the Kool-Aid man bursting through a brick wall.
One of the best things about this band is that they have three singers. In rap mode they trade off verses like, well the Beastie Boys. But in hardcore mode, the singers work like 1980s tag team wrestlers. They bellow until they can’t bellow anymore and then someone else comes in with fresh bellowing.
Rarely do the the rap mode and hardcore style meet, but when they do (like the track “Homeless”) the asskicking fury delivered is as intense as it is unstoppable. This is not to say Johnny Royal are over the top Macho Man Randy Savage style hollering. The largely instrumental track “동해바다” calms things down briefly, and “파괴지왕” has some outstanding Tom Morello style guitar solo.
Overall, the Johnny Royal tracks are a lot better than the Lazybone track, and are almost mighty enough to make up for the fact that they are on an album with ska.
