Twink, the Toy Piano Band! Twink, the Toy Piano Band!

Review of The Broken Record from CMJ by Joshua Starr

Twink's first two albums consisted of toy piano melodies played by Hoppity Jones, Mike Langlie's cartoon bunny alter ego. This one leaves out the toy pianos, but we're still following Langlie down the rabbit hole. The Broken Record is a Wonderland of old children's records Langlie unearthed as inspiration, all cut up and twerked into bizarre but entirely listenable electro-pop. Though it's far from a Willy Wonka acid-trip ferry ride, the horns and fairytale flutes do have the veil of distorted weirdness that accompanies any revisitation of childhood—it's more Dahl than Dali, strange but not scary. Mostly, it's an excuse to enjoy classics like "Three Blind Mice" (spliced with The Three Stooges: "'I can't see!' 'What's the matter?' 'I've got my eyes closed,'") to obscurities like "The Great Circus Show." Langlie keeps the tunes catchy with skillful, funky arrangements, but it's still an off-the-wall novelty.

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