I must have heard this album in full and the individual songs more times than I count, and I still don't have a true feel for it. The first in a long line of iconoclastically weird records from Blue Oyster Cult. What more is there to say?
The 'Kids always had a knack for gritty storytelling, but "Squalliday Inn" finds them in their most debauched mode: "You got no brain but you got head/Step in my rented car/'Cause sooner or later you're gonna end up in my bed".
Digital Underground managed to follow up on the success of 1990's Sex Packets here on their second album, which was an all-out tribute to the 1970's space-funk co-op Parliament-Funkadelic. They even get George Clinton himself to cameo on the title track. Whereas the previous album owed more to 1980's Golden Age rap, DU head honcho Shock G spread his stylistic wings, added more people to the group, and more elements to the sound. Now, more than ever, this has the feel of 70's communal funk put in the context of hip-hop, with most every track spreading the wealth among multiple rappers, vocals, samples, and effects.
A very fun and socially-relevant single using the Humpty Hump character as an effective conduit - commenting on the celebrity plastic surgery craze - which probably should have made it into a bigger hit than the modest one it actually became. Maybe because it contains a passing Trump reference? But it's the odd yet highly catchy musical backdrop that's more enveloping.
