Search - Uncle Bonsai :: Apology

A mixed bag, but mostly good

Bradford Daniels | Redmond, WA | 11/21/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Apology" is an interesting album, in that it contains several excellent songs that have already been released on other albums, along with a very mixed crop of songs that haven't been released previously. Of the new songs, my favorites are "I Awoke in Iowa", the "Iowa Apology" song (an "apology" for "I Awoke in Iowa"), and "Apology" (which is an apology for the "Iowa Apology" song and just about every other song Ratshin ever wrote).My main criticism of this album is that the new material is too heavily weighted toward the humor, without the depth of emotion I usually look for in Uncle Bonsai material. Most of the emotion comes from tracks repeated from "Doug" or other sources.Also, many of the songs are musically weaker than usual. Even though I know the endless repitition in "I Love You I Love You I Love You I'm trying to Read" is intended to be part of the joke, it just gets annoying after a while.All that said, this album is too good to rate only 3 stars, though it probably doesn't quite deserve 4 stars, either. Call it 3.5 stars."