Ooh la La, Sha Sha...

Album Review

They've doubtless heard all the jokes, every one — and if you're going to call your label Jive Sucka! and have a horn section called that as well, not to mention songs called "New Thang" and "Poppa Music," then one might as well start writing the Wild Cherry and Average White Band comparisons before listening. (As was the case with this review, frankly.) So does Ooh La La Sha Sha stand on its own merits or not? Well...kinda. Which may sound like a cop-out, but ultimately that's the feeling of the album as well — if it's trying to have its cake and eat it too, fair enough, but one gets the feeling that if Daddy Wrall would just embrace his perfectly obvious (and perfectly justifiable) Prince fascination to the full rather than creating a freeze-dried — or blow-dried — parody/tribute/cartoon of the same then he'd end up in a better place all around. "Vanilla Place" in particular is a full-on "if only this song was actually on disc two of Sign 'O' the Times" effort that almost could justify inclusion on that masterpiece — and with an Elvis reference to boot — yet it still somehow isn't as full-on entertainingly right/beautifully wrong as Ween's stellar lo-fi cover of "Shockadelica" nearly two decades back. On balance, Miss Fairchild love not too wisely but too well — there's all the funk-signifier embraces, the squiggly synths, the jazz flute breaks and more that one could want, and again, Daddy Wrall in particular has a voice and can use it. But after a certain point one just actually wants to hear "Machine Gun" and "Jungle Boogie" and "Adore" and a whole lot more aside from charming-but-adds-little re-creation of same.