Word: talkin
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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There have been few arguments for corporal punishment as strong as this unintentionally depressing dramedy of domestic self-absorption. But it's hard to say who could use it most: the casually amoral kids, who spend half the show delivering know-it-all voiceovers? The whiny parents? The sex-talkin' grandma? Actually, it may be the show's makers, who have piled on a media-studies dissertation's worth of trendy fourth-wall-breaking, belabored pop references and defensive, reflexive asides: "I know what you're thinking," goes one. "This is another one of those smart-ass shows where...
...race, it's clear what kind of choice George W. Bush wants to offer America: Reagan vs. Bush. But this time Bush will play Reagan and Gore will play Bush. Get it? George W. hopes to sketch this contest (he's already thinking general election) as the sunny, straight-talkin', conservative cowboy from out West against the tense, aloof, out-of-touch elitist from back East. In other words, he's trying to assume the role perfected in 1980 by Ronald Reagan (but without all that pesky ideology) while casting Al Gore as the pencil-neck child of the Establishment...
...addition, these self-congratulatory songs are still centered around confrontational relationships, primarily between the band and their potential fans. In "We Care," the lyrics are almost whiney, addressing the audience, "Thanx for calling us sell outs," and "We always thought you liked our band/I'm not talkin' about everybody/I'm sorry to waste a song." Similarly, in "The Kids Don't Like It," the singer complains that "We tried to do something new/It may sound real good/But I don't think we're getting through." The singer directs resentment at the "kids," who in all fairness should be showering...
...incongruous textures, styles and ambiguous messages. In an arrangement Fuck seems to favor, a single guitar strums slow chords, accompanied only by a simple snare beat and an extremely sparse bass line. Prodhumme sings without affectation or stylized humor about the inability of anyone to truly know themself: "Talkin' to a blind beauty about beauty/Talkin' to the red brigade about the blue/talking to a fairy tale/Let's talk about something else/We don't know ourselves/Me...
...love it. The only town on the planet where a civility-campaign slogan could be, "You talkin' to me?" And the best part is that everyone in New York, with the lone exception of Giuliani, has caught the irony. "He's got a lese majeste personality," observed ex-Mayor Ed Koch. "If you say anything critical, off to the guillotine...