Bowling For SoupThe Great Burrito Extortion CaseSony BMG/Zomba RecordingsTwo out of five stars
I guess getting nominated for a Grammy validates a review of Bowling For Soup’s ninth album, The Great Burrito Extortion Case (who produces nine CDs for a band like this? Wait?no?who nominates Bowling For Soup for a Grammy?!) and if you ask me, that’s a pretty cool title, but it doesn’t have anything to do with the album.
What does, however, are classic Bowling For Soup tropes such as witty sarcasm, celebrity bashing and everything pop. The Great Burrito Extortion Case handles these characteristics pretty well in each track as it bounces along, but eventually, taken as a whole, the album gets mired down. Even diverse topics-such as abuse, love and self-worth-begin to sound similar.
Some of the cultural criticism and jokes about Tom Cruise, past girlfriends or even the band members themselves seem spot on. However, these, too, can get old, and many fall short of being as funny as intended, but Bowling For Soup deserves a little bit of credit.
The one nice thing about the band is its ability to make the ridiculous seem personable and somehow?what’s the word, not stupid? For example, in “Don’t Let It Be Love,” the band members quip about how they can’t handle relationships as they’re much more able to involve themselves in “wham, bam, thank you, ma’am” scenarios.
Stupid, right?
Of course. But Bowling For Soup can somehow pull it off with finesse.
I hate to say it, but Bowling For Soup is pretty unusual, because nobody’s going to hear this kind of ridiculous stuff from any other band, no matter how lame it is.
So, I guess that’s the summation. The Great Burrito Extortion Case exemplifies so much stupid and so much power pop-punk sensibility–so much so, in fact, that anybody would think the world has gone mad. Well, NEWS FLASH! The World HAS gone mad, and Bowling For Soup is living proof.
