Saturday, November 04, 2006

The Last Hero on Earth, by Tom Smith


As you might know, I like Tom smith's stuff. I download his iTom song every week. Since my car didn't require too much when I had in in for inspection last month, I decided to splurge on, among other things, The Last Hero on Earth.

This is a very odd CD. It was written as a part of 24 Hour Comics Day, where people are encouraged to try and write a comic book in 24 hours. Like me, and many other people, Tom Smith can't draw well or fast, so he wrote songs instead. The songs were based off of imaginary comic book chapter titles suggested by the readers of his LiveJournal (see the thread here). As you might expect, he got some very odd suggestions, which resulted in a very odd and funny album.

It's a comic opera about a super hero called The Waffle. All of the rest of Earth's heroes have been defeated by the combined might of the world's mad scientists. The Waffles abilities are "agility, quick with, [and] marksmanship (syrup gun only)." These aren't the sort of abilities that strike fear into the hearts of evildoers. Really, it reminds my of the movie Mystery Men, only much better (and I actually like that movie).

All of the tracks are funny. There wasn't one that didn't get me laughing at least once. Some of them got me laughing a lot more than once. It's hard to say why, but my favorite tracks are probably "What If?," "Pirate Ninjas from Dino Island," and "With Great Power Comes Great Power Bills." Like I said, it was hard to pick, because all of the tracks were great.

The only real exception wast he bonus tracks. They weren't bad, but I didn't think they were all that great. They were mostly some alternate versions of other tracks with introductions by Tom Smith. There were also some bloopers. Overall, I don't think they significantly added or subtracted from the quality of the album.

it's a great album. You should go buy it. I give The Last Hero on Earth five yo-yos.

No comments: