The B-52's: Whammy! : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

The fifth record from the B-52's serves notice that those endearing ditzes from Athens, Georgia, are back on the party line. One of the few American New Wave groups to notch two gold records, the B-52's return from the setback they suffered when Mesopotamia, their underrated foray into deeper funk, stiffed. Their new producer, Tom Tom Club boardman Steven Stanley, has added a dab of Devoderived keyboards to complement Ricky Wilson's scratchy guitar but kept the band's basic strengths intact: breakneck tempos, deliciously uninhibited singing and an earnest enthusiasm for some of the universe's less-celebrated pleasures, like telekinesis, junk food and forgery.

At their best, vocalists Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson are able to imbue even their goofiest observations with a fervor that makes them seem truly meaningful. On "Legal Tender," the band's ode to counterfeiting, they holler, "Ten! Twenty! Thirty million dollars/Ready to be spent," in what must be the most exuberant tribute to wealth–ill-gotten or otherwise–in rock annals. So appealing are their performances that by the time they introduce themselves in the gut-busting "Song for a Future Generation" ("Hello, I'm Cindy. I'm a Pisces, and I like Chihuahuas and Chinese noodles!"), you're almost hoping they'll tell you their phone numbers. Fred Schneider's contribution to side one is no letdown, either, with the agreeable mindlessness of "Butterbean" and the mock urgency of "Whammy Kiss" ("I ain't foolin'," he vows, "give me a refuelin'").

But side two is a waste, with only two cute song titles, "Queen of Las Vegas" and "Work That Skirt" to recommend it. That's not so bad, though, when you realize that the B-52's haven't made a good second side in their whole career. What is important is that this band is having fun again – and in this age of dopey novelty songs and cheesy dance tracks, nobody does it better.