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Action Figure Party's eponymously-titled debut album is a difficult album to classify. The opening track, "Everybody Ready," lulls one into believing that he has stumbled into a jazz album. However, that notion is quickly disabused on "Action Figure Party," a funky, turntable-driven number that features Sean Lennon.
And just when you think you have the album figured out, AFP responds with two more instrumentals, "Pong Baby" and "Gamera." Later in the disc, you get "George & Cindy," another instrumental that would not be out of place on a Steely Dan album. This variety is both interesting and disconcerting. While the groovy, experimental, sample laden sound is alternately soothing and invigorating, the album takes on an almost-schizophrenic tone at times, albeit one that is more pacifying than irritating. Though it is not a crime when a listener is unsure what a band has in mind, it is more troubling when the listener is not sure that the band knows what they set out to accomplish either. By employing an army of bassists including the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea and hip-hop and R&B's Mike Elizondo, AFP has managed to assemble and album that could be the background for dimly-lit after-parties. The album that cannot be categorized mixes R&B, jazz, and jam band rock into a pastiche that promises to be adored by stoners everywhere. Action Figure Party deserves to be heard. Some people, especially those jam band fans out there, might consider this a gem. Those who demand a little more structure (and fewer instrumentals) in their albums will argue that, while there might be a diamond in the rough, it will take a deeper search to convince them that they found it in this disc. |
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Action Figure Party $11.99 CD |
 Sean Lennon Into The Sun $13.49 CD |
 Red Hot Chili Peppers Best of Red Hot Chili Peppers $5.49 CD |
 Steely Dan Two Against Nature $15.49 CD |
