I've been given the opportunity to review the latest release from World Party entitled Dumbing Up. I should state upfront that I am not that familiar with their work, other than having heard "Ship of Fools" back in the day and "Way Down Now" once or twice, so this a review by the completely uninitiated.
The opening track is "Another Thousand Years" which is very Beatlesque (or is that Lennoneque?). Hey, if you are going to rip anyone off you might as well rip off the best and as such this is one of the stand-out songs on the CD. The featured song on the CD is track 2, "What Does it Mean Now?". It is for good reason as it has the best chance of getting radio exposure. The version of the CD I received came with a bonus DVD that contain selected (all?) of World Party's videos from past albums and after listening to that as well I can safely say that if you are already a fan of their work you will really like this song. Why not judge for yourself here (wma or mov). While I am on the subject of their past work I can ssay that they have some pretty good stuff and a "Best of" compilation would be a worth while purchase, if one existed.
The third song is "Til I Got You" which keeps the pace up on the CD and makes it three for three. To my ear it gets pretty mixed from there. The Dylanesque "Who Are You?" is not for me and even though "Here Comes The Future" seems to be featured prominently on their website it is too cluttered for me.
The only other songs on the CD that I like are "Best Place I've Ever Been" and "See The Light". It is not as though the rest are bad it is just that they are not great.
I feel kind of bad giving this a number rating since this is not the type of music I listen to. I am pretty confident that fans of World Party will enjoy this release. I can also say that fans of bands like Wilco may want to check them out (if they
haven't already) but what is a review without a number?
6 out of 10
