A one man musical oddity, Mayor McCA (formerly known as CA Smith) lives in a world all his own. Sometimes he's a hard character to grasp. Stylistically, he's all over the place; one minute he's the reincarnated spirit of The Beatles ("I Don't Read The Newspaper"), the next he's rhyming like Beck working on a sequel to "Loser" (see "That's A Wrap"). Then, in the blink of an eye, he becomes a new member of Wilco, singing country-tinged songs of longing ("I Love The Summer 'Cause I Love The Women"). It's almost as if CA is trying to irritate listeners -- but it's not working on me. Me Is He is one of those albums that would be extremely easy to dismiss if you were only listening half-heartedly. However, if you can look past the distracting factors (like the kazoo on "The McCAmpaign Song") and soak up the moments when Mayor McCA drops his "just being silly" guard (which he does, thankfully, for the majority of the album), you'll be nothing short of amazed. There are some truly beautiful songs here.
The only real downside to Me Is He is that so many of the songs end well before you've had your fill. Even the kazoo song doesn't wear out its (admittedly short) welcome, clocking in at just over two minutes. The longest of the songs, "I Don't Know Why", drops off before you can enjoy every last drop of its Brando-like melancholy. I guess this could work in Mayor McCA's favor by insuring repeated listening; you're supposed to leave the audience wanting more, right?
Though I've never been a fan of "funny" songs, tracks like "I'm Getting Fat" (whose lyrics include "Five too many hot dogs, fifteen too many beers. I'm getting fat again") are bearable here; they're effectively balanced by the rest of the songs, most of which avoid the standard frat-house sing-along route. "Never Thought You Would Stay" and "I Don't Know Why", with their more serious lyrics about love and loss, work so well that I have to wonder why CA bothers with the humorous fare at all. He truly is a hard guy to figure out.
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