Joe Soko

"Floss Like a Beast" CDR

Fuzzy Planet

Genre: comedy, folk pop

July 1 2008

This collection of "incredibly strange folk songs" is essentially fairly conventional acoustic folk-pop with silly lyrics on par with an irony-free Neil Hamburger. Topics covered on Floss like a Beast include bovine miscreants, bloodthirsty gerbils, and the sneezerman (he can stop a robber in his tracks by sneezing in his face!). What works on this album is that the vocals are extremely clear and well-articulated. The guitar compositions are serviceable and frequently showcase Soko's evident musical background, although their main purpose is to frame the goofball lyrics - which are often tediously lame. At times, Floss like a Beast is actually quite a catchy record (see "Sneezerman," "The Chillbilly Zone," and legitimately original "Single Green Creature"), although Soko's nasal vocals make it hard to take this seriously as a pop album. I can see him as being the type of entertainer who would make a great diversion at a local folk festival, but divorced from a live context, Floss like a Beast just seems immature.

68%

Matt Shimmer

[Vitals: 12 tracks, distributed by the label, released 2008]