4 out of 5

Label: Walt Rhesus

Producer: Fuck

Folky, funny, playful, sad.  Most Fuck releases have a smirk behind them, and the soft-spoken stumbly twang is quite identifiable from the crowd, a nice dash of comfort with experimentation and accident that’s always set the band, to me, at the top of the pile of indie whispery rocksters.  But while a song from ‘Pretty… Slow’ could play right alongside ‘Bongos’ without feeling so disparate, there has been absolute progress along the way, finding a defining way to make the most of simple tunes without stripping it into silliness or minimalism.  The band reached a peak on ‘Cupid’s Cactus’ and then sorta tipped over the line into too quiet for the followup, but all the stuff leading up to ‘Cupid’ was filled with little treasures of exploring all sides of the fence.  ‘Baby Loves a Funny Bunny’ is no exception.  It lacks the odd distortion number that the group stuck in on some releases, but it plays around with silly tomes about girls and then some more serious fare.  The album slows down when it downshifts into completely straight-forward stuff – including an all acoustic track that would’ve been better relegated to Tim Prudhomme’s solo release, as its dour tone doesn’t quite sit well with the cynicism that backs most Fuck tracks.  But the flipside of this are those awesome tunes where the group knocks out a catchy, poppy riff and then drops lyrics that could be nonsense but hint at something more – such as on ‘Rococo’ – along with the production noodling (background instruments and noise) that gives the tracks depth and nuance without being disruptive.

It’s not quite as seamless as ‘Pardon My French,’ and gets a little lost when skipping between instrumental tunes and short ditties and then dropping something stripped down and non-Fucky – but ‘Baby’ is an easy listen that gets your toe tapping and head bobbing and could serve as the perfect primer for the various flavors the band offers.