"Moxy Früvous - Bargainville"

Moxy Früvous is a band I was introduced to my sophomore year of college (yes, I can still remember when it happened). Had someone mentioned them to me any earlier than that, I don't know that I'd have been prepared for their style, and I probably wouldn't have understood most of the jokes.

As it stands, Moxy Früvous was the band that I originally started using file sharing programs to find. They're Canadian, and finding their albums here in Oklahoma (or in Arkansas, for that matter) is nigh impossible (I've only ever seen their albums in the stores four times--three times, I bought what I found. the fourth time was no good to me, 'cause it was an album I already had).

Bargainville is their first full-length album, and it establishes their style, sound, themes, and quirks right off the bat. This is a band with wit, heart, and head, all rolled into four guys from the Great White North.

Musically, Bargainville is fairly standard Canadian smirky pop. They sound a bit like a cross between Barenaked Ladies and They Might Be Giants (who, while not Canadian, have the quirky thing down pat), and this is a good thing. Strummed acoustics, sparse percussion, the occasional harmonica or accordion flourish, and an occasional electric guitar for effect--the instrumentation is laid-back, spare, and folky. The instruments are really secondary, though, because the draw here are the four guys' voices.

It's rare that you find a band where the singers harmonize well or often. Well, Moxy excel at it. They've got vocal chops in spades, man. They trade lead vocal duties, share backing and call-and-answer harmonies, and generally give you the impression that this is all pretty effortless and fun. Above all, it's fun.

And that's what you get here--a sense of four friends hanging out and just having fun. They occasionally tackle an important issue--"River Valley" is about industrial pollution, "Stuck in the '90s" is about the materialism of the late 20th century, and "Gulf War Song," a beautiful a capella song about the Persian Gulf War that's as applicable now as it was a decade and a half ago--but for every song about the decline of contemporary society, you've got a song like "Laika," a love song about a guy and his spaceship, or "The Lazy Boy," an ode to an armchair, or "King of Spain," a rousing number about a former monarch doing minimum wage labor in Canada after willingly giving up his throne, or "Spiderman," a cover of the old '60s TV show theme song. These guys are about whimsy and humor, self-deprication and a gentle understanding of what it is that makes people behave the way they do.

Best of all, all the songs on this album are solid. Some of them, like "Morphee" (a song sung completely in French. If only there were an English translation included) and "Darlington Darling," aren't quite as good as the best songs on here, but this isn't to say that they are bad songs. They're still quite good, just not as good.

The best song on here, though, and the one which probably sums up the band the best, is "The Drinking Song." It mixes humor, wit, whimsy, bittersweet rememberance, and resignation in one beautiful package. It's ostensibly about the time the narrator's drinking buddy died of drinking, but it's also a requiem for good times, a recollection of how life moves on after tragedy. And it's a beautiful song, at that. "The Drinking Song" also throws in a brief snatch of Leadbelly's "Goodnight, Irene," and that right there was enough to pique my interest in Leadbelly.

All in all, Bargainville is a great album. It's one of those where I never have to hit the skip button, and I know most of the songs word for word. Definitely recommended to anyone who likes a little smirk in their song.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Moxy Früvous, "BJ Don't Cry"