Liam Lynch: Fake Songs

Sifl & Olly co-creator Liam Lynch's musical comedy album Fake Songs gets its name from the record's recurring joke: tracks called "Fake David Bowie Song," "Fake Depeche Mode Song," "Fake Talking Heads Song," and so on, which precisely ape their title subjects. Lynch's "Fake Björk Song" is especially convincing, while his clever Pixies piss-take consists of non sequiturs capped by foreign phrases. Beyond the initial gimmick, though, there's not much to Lynch's knockoffs–he doesn't really mock his sources, or offer comment. The spoofs are pretty much just lazy, fooling-around-in-the-studio exercises, which also holds true for most of the non-fake songs on Fake Songs. Lynch's mini-hit "United States Of Whatever" does a great job channeling The Cramps and Iggy Pop into a minute and a half of bratty nonsense about the way the youth of America communicates through non-communication, and he finds funny ways to convey the disorientation of being hungover (in "Still Wasted From The Party Last Night") and the racial tension caused by cultural appropriation (in the gospel-tinged "Electrician's Day"). Also on the plus side, the songs and the record as a whole are blessedly short, and bargain-hunters should appreciate that Fake Songs comes bundled with a 90-minute bonus DVD containing a tour of Lynch's studio and an assortment of his animated shorts and videos. But though the postmodern renaissance man comes across as a good-natured, clever guy in his DVD footage, even the shortest comedy bits tend to run out of steam halfway through. Lynch is a skilled mimic and an outstanding idea man, but he doesn't transform a collection of quick stingers into something complete or coherent.