Review: Cute Stripey Cardigan for Twenty Bucks

Cute Stripey Cardigan

Cute Stripey Cardigan for Twenty Bucks 

Two for Twee Records/MPDG Ltd.; 2009

Cute Stripey Cardigan's third album in as many years is a response to the age-old question, "If squirrels could write music, what would it sound like?" The lyrics to album opener, "You are Adorable, I am Adorable (We are Adorable Together)," offers a glimpse into the life of an organic, lemon-poppy seed cupcake that has fallen devastatingly in love with a broken-spined, first-print copy of The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and features glistering, peanut-brittle guitars, a string quintet, and harmonies sung by three of the original surviving Ewoks. The final lines, delivered from the point of view of the weary copy of the Beatrix Potter classic--"My little Poppy/You make me so sleepy/But you are a sweetie/You know how to read me"--provide proof that the two will survive all of the relationship hiccups presented in the preceding verses.

Speaking of hiccups, second track, "Get Up! Get Up! And Dance to Your Hiccups!" is a rollicking delight dedicated to the recent YouTube craze of tweens posting videos of themselves downing bottles of Jones Cola and then ecstatically dancing herky-jerk to the beat of their or their friends' hiccups. The track also includes a ukelele solo by the ghost of the eternally darling, Spanky of The Little Rascals. Brilliantly stark closing track, "Let's Tint Everything Just a Little Bit Yellow," is simply an audio recording of a daffodil digitally sped up by 1,500% so that the listener can experience its emergence from seed to blooming flower in a mere three minutes and twenty-two seconds.

It's great to see that Cute Stripey Cardigan have landed on their penny-loafer and Mary Janes wearing feet following the sophomore slump of previous record, We Like Books and Milk. Fans of Manchester's The Sunday Picnics, early Scratch N' Sniff Stickers, and actual scratch 'n sniff stickers will fall head over heels for Cute Stripey Cardigan for Twenty Bucks.

RATING: 5/5 Fluffy Baby Chickadees