Still crazy after all these years

Review Score: (8/10)
Back in 1966, Napoleon XIV (Jerry Samuels) had a hit with one of the greatest novelty songs of all time, "They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!". This CD includes all the material from the subsequent "They're Coming To Take Me Away" album, plus three tracks from his unreleased second album, the 1990 sequel to his hit, and four newly recorded songs. Although Samuels has dismissed the "They're Coming" album as a quick cash in product, most of the material is actually quite funny. You wouldn't think a whole album of novelty songs about mental illness would work, but somehow it does. The three tracks from his second album are very ambitious and well produced, but they aren't actually all that funny. Samuels apparently feels that "The Explorer" from that album is the greatest thing he ever recorded, but I have to respectfully disagree. "They're Coming To Get Me Again, Ha-Haaa!" is a worthy sequel to his hit. As for the four new songs, only one of them, "I Owe a Lot To Iowa Pot", is actually a full length song. The others are brief, rather silly, song fragment jokes. The hidden bonus track is the original b-side of "They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!", "!aaaH-aH ,yawA eM ekaT oT gnimoC er'yehT", which is the a-side played backwards. This CD is a worthwhile purchase for all fans of novelty records.

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