With this
King Missile
found themselves with a fluke hit, thanks to the knowingly idiotic
"Detachable Penis."
It's not quite the
"My Ding-a-Ling"
of its time, but it did get airplay,
MTV
coverage, and the like,
Hall
telling a sad tale of waking up in the morning, finding the titular organ missing, and then having to search for it, all while pondering the benefits and flaws of having a detachable penis in the first place. Thanks to a catchy arrangement via
Rick
's clipped, stuttered guitar riff and the sweetly sung title phrase in the background, the result is giddy left-field nonsense. Due in part to the return of
Kramer
to production -- or in this case co-production -- duties, along with a slew of more immediately memorable songs,
Happy Hour
trumps
The Way to Salvation
as the peak of the band's high-profile days, an inspired collection of tunes ranging from deranged
pop
to full-on epic
metal
stomp. It's the blessed liveliness of the whole album -- at a premium in the days of full-on
grunge
when it came out, still rare enough years later -- that makes it stand up so well.
"Martin Scorcese,"
an on-the-edge celebration of the director in question, has
threatening him with physical violence, so appreciative a fan is he, the music snaking along with a
psych
/
new wave
bite (no, really!). Highlights of
's vocal turns this time out: from
"It's Saturday,"
"I want to be different/Like everyone else"; from the mock
classic rock
love anthem
"Take Me Home,"
"You're the one who knows my whole life is a pathetic sham." In all, the merry feeling of the songs, spiked with the solid playing of the individual members, proves again to be
's ace in the hole, making
-- which is indeed literally an hour long -- the entertaining listen it is. ~ Ned Raggett