Music that fuels an involuntary giggle or two — the laughing with, not at variety — without foraying into Weird Al territory is rare. Along with plenty of head-nodding and foot-tapping, Fergus & Geronimo’s debut LP, Unlearn, is worthy of a few chuckles. Formerly from Denton, Texas, the newfound Brooklynites mashed soulful melodies with smoky hippie chants and garage pop to make a weird, rock ‘n’ roll commune of an album — and somehow, the whole thing’s pretty endearing.
The opener, “Girls With English Accents,” repeats the eponymous line — and Jason Kelly and Andrew Savage do it with English accents. Ha! The borderline joke of a tune contains almost all of the vibes heard on the rest of the album; the tracks that follow are more concentrated in one style or the other.
There’s the pan flute-accented, aforementioned hippie chant brand (“Wanna Know What I Would Do?”) and the doo-woppin’, vocally soulful type (“Powerful Lovin'”). On “Michael Kelly,” the band plays with shoegaze-like guitar work for a more straightforward indie rock song, while “Baby Don’t You Cry” sounds like punk-rooted garage pop.
The pair gets its most free-spirited on “Where the Walls Are Made of Grass,” where sax follows lines like “I’m gonna live/Totally free/Escape everything I knew,” “Sh**ting in the woods/Mud on my face/I am one with Mother Earth” and “Treating people rude/All organic food/Like the natives used to eat.” Clearly, Kelly and Savage are poking fun at the holier-than-thou hippie culture.
The band takes a stab at philosophy, too — most likely. At least, let’s hope no real profound meaning was the intent of “World Never Stops,” a garage pop track that boasts the lyrics “People die/And then others cry/New ones are born/While others still mourn.” Wow, that’s deep. But considering Fergus & Geronimo’s mockery of tree-huggers, it’s probably safe to say the lyrics aren’t meant to be taken too seriously.
And though Unlearn as a whole is odd and fun and often silly, it’s numbers like the aforementioned “Powerful Lovin'” and the title track, “Unlearn,” that show Fergus & Geronimo at its best. Both songs draw upon doo-wop and soul so heavily that they evoke poodle skirts and bobby socks — and neither sounds like jesting mimicry.
With all its reference points mostly channeled into individual songs, Unlearn feels a bit scatter-brained. Mixing doo-wop-style songs with tracks that recall a weekend of taking psychedelics in the woods is almost too off-kilter. But, you know, it’s far better to be weird than boring.
