Review Summary: The D stands for dreadful.
Let’s go back to 2001, to a period where Tenacious D was making noticeable headway with their meticulously thought-out, self-titled debut album. An LP that garnered further traction knowing it was supported by our very own Dave Grohl on drums, as well as additional guitar support for a good chunk of the album’s tracks. At the time, Tenacious D was a group that landed in the right place at the right time, given that they had released the album during MTV’s primary years where adolescent youths ate up the likes of Jackass and Celebrity Deathmatch in spades (myself included). Their style of comedy was perfectly suited for that era and there weren’t many acts doing what they were doing – or anywhere near as well. Which is why this is where I get straight to the point; even then, with their witty banter, satirical writing and subtle subversions, I still only found it to be a quaint standalone project that should have ended as quickly as it’d began. The movie and its proceeding albums are quite simply awful. They lack the quick-witted serration that initial release had, stooping to exclusive levels of common denominator jokes. And don’t read this the wrong way,
Tenacious D isn’t the sophisticated comedy trip I’m making it out to be; it isn’t the Citizen Kane of humorous rides, but it does occasionally fall into that dried humour Spinal Tap masterfully owned.
Even if you disregard this as being a cynical viewpoint so far, the proof is in the pudding: Tenacious D hasn’t had a hit song post-
Tenacious D. They’ve never been able to get past the “F-ck Her Gently”, “Tribute”, “Wonder Boy” and “Dio”’s of that album – never becoming more evident than it does here, on
Post-Apocalypto. Imagine for a moment, a Tenacious D album that focuses its attentions on “F-ck Her Gently” in a post-apocalyptic setting. It’s the end of the world, we [the humans] have f-cked it up, so you know what that means？ Sex jokes aplenty, because it falls into the context of the album’s universe where they have to repopulate the world again. Get it？ And I’m not trying to sound like a Grinch, the concept has potential, but the fundamental problem can’t be ignored that these jokes and skits fall so flat it’s embarrassing to hear at times. “scientists”
still continues to use the “best band in the world” tagline after 17 years of being excessively hammered into your brain, not to mention the few songs that are here sound like recycled moments of glory. Every square inch of this record sounds uninspired and constantly uses references of sex to progress this nightmare: from the Floydian makeover of “MAKING LOVE”, that attempts to mask the fact it’s basically “F-ck Her Gently” with a foreboding soundscape, to the wincing ballad of “F-CK YO-YO MA” and the heavy metal shredder of “DADDY DING DONG” that dispenses playground levels of lyric writing.
The only thing that I took away from this album, that can be taken as a positive, was that it does present itself as a cinematic journey of sorts. You do get the feeling Kyle and Jack are exploring this dystopian future, going through various settings, meeting robots, The Devil, scientists, racists and other characters along the way. Of course, it’s all handled horribly and fails to get even a smirk out of its flat comedy, but there is that at least. It surprises me more than anything else that these guys are still wanting to continue this band. There’s clearly nothing else left to be said that hasn’t already, but yet they persist on delivering the same trite time and time again. The level of irony found within this duo’s tenacious antics is probably the biggest laugh of all, but I get the feeling the joke is over their heads.
FORMAT//EDITIONS: DIGITAL/̶/̶C̶D̶/̶/̶V̶I̶N̶Y̶L̶/̶/̶V̶A̶R̶I̶O̶U̶S̶ ̶B̶U̶N̶D̶L̶E̶S̶
PACKAGING: N/A
SPECIAL EDITION: N/A
ALBUM STREAM//PURCHASE: https://tenaciousd.tmstor.es/
