‘Funplex,’ a new album by THE B-52s, is the group’s first effort in many years, but the rockin’ new songs are anything but dated. (Photo by Joseph Cultice)
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REBECCA ARMENDARIZ
Friday, March 21, 2008
A person naturally inclined to like the B-52s probably also has an affinity for hand-claps, shouted choruses and thinly veiled quips about sex. “Funplex” proves that the band’s style hasn’t grown old or tired, and neither have these aging (most members are in their mid-to-late 50s) rock stars. Fred Schneider, Kate Pierson, Cindy Wilson and Keith Strickland, three of whom are openly gay or bisexual, still play tight guitar riffs, deliver needle-sharp execution of witty lyrics and dish out a synthesized whirlwind of heavenly pop instrumentation.
“Pump” opens the record with a fierce beast of a surf-rock guitar line and proves that Schneider and the girls’ voices have not slacked over time. “Hot Corner” gives Schneider a place to show off his never-waning signature Sprechstimme (that deep singing-slash-talking thing he’s got going on). “No damn class in the classic city/He’s a mess, but he’s really pretty,” he shouts.
At this point, only two songs in, the listener has been directed to “shimmy in a lurex gown,” “pump it” and “shake it to the last round.” No complaints here. Consider yourself transported to either a luau, a big gay dance party or your bedroom, sans pants.
The foursome from Athens, Ga., is named after a beehive hairdo and identifies as queer, though Cindy Wilson is straight. The group formed in 1976, and “Funplex” is the B-52s’ seventh album. After losing guitarist Ricky Wilson to AIDS in 1985, the band fell apart until “Cosmic Thing” in ’89, and then Wilson left the band for ’92’s “Good Stuff.” “Funplex” marks this party band’s triumphant return to the mainstream after a near 16-year hiatus in recording.
THE RECORD CONTINUES with “Juliet of the Spirits,” which may be the dreamiest track on the album — and it was featured in an episode of “The L Word” — with spacey, lilting female vocals over a psychedelic bass line. The song, reminiscent of ’80s Belinda Carlisle, pays homage to the 1965 film by Federico Fellini about an Italian housewife who spends time with a crazy, metaphysical crowd to realize her desires and become more independent. “Juliet, you’re not afraid anymore,” the ladies sing.
Lead single “Funplex” has great shouted interchanges between Schneider, Wilson and Pierson. “Oh, you broke my heart at the Funplex, yes you did, yes you did,” the females proclaim during the chorus. It sounds like the band has grown up, ditched the “Love Shack” and carved out a new hangout spot at the “Funplex.”
“Eyes Wide Open” is a monotonous, cowbell-pulsed experiment that leads into “Love in the
Year 3000,” which finds band members chanting “Robot. Bootybot. Erotobot.” These tracks are very new wave for the space age and not as accessible as the early tracks on the album.
As the album progresses, the songs start to meld together and trod along in tempo. But the chorus of “Too Much to Think About” rocks with a simple pop-radio quality, and “Keep This Party Going” rounds out the record with more boogie-down, hip-shaking drum beats appropriate for a beach party.
So it’s been nearly 16 years since an album of new material from the band has been recorded. And the amazing thing about “Funplex” is that for 2008, it’s good enough to top the charts. Had they written the record in 1989, it would’ve been good enough then, too. And that’s a style, unlike the B-52, that never goes out of fashion.
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