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New Wet Kojak, "This is the Glamorous"
After their disastrous EP, No. 4, I was really hoping New Wet Kojak would find a way to get back to the ultra-sexy grooves of the past and obliterate the stain that release had left on them. Early reports about this new album suggested I might be horribly disappointed. NWK had decided to record a concept album about consumer culture. I was worried, but I shouldn't have been. This is the real New Wet Kojak.
This is the Glamorous is that rare album that defines a band. It's the album NWK has always had in them but had never released. The time is definitely now. Perhaps the work its two members did with their other band, Girls Against Boys, on the soundtrack to the film Series 7 has affected the band as a whole in a new way. The soundtrack's best track, "One Dose of Truth," is the blueprint for this whole CD. Scott McCloud's lyrics are still laughable at times, but the stream of consciousness way they come out on these songs makes it seem like someone watching a TV or reading a magazine and saying whatever comes out. Musically, NWK are closer to GVSB than they ever have been, and that's a very good thing. This is amplified sex rock with horns and keyboard effects. This is the club sound of nowhere that should be everywhere. Track after track is another gem. "In a world of shampoo" and "I just want to be unique, just like everyone else" might seem pedestrian on paper, but set to this music they are chants designed to inspire booty-shaking. "It's in the effects you select, it's in your cigarette" and "Like it's in me and it's in you" on the quasi-title track, with its low bassline and chiming guitar melody, make for smooth sailing. There's no need to speak of highlights, because there isn't a track on this album that is a lowlight. I'm with Mikey on this one: I like it, I like it. This is the New Wet Kojak, just like the Old Wet Kojak. Only better. "And if you haven't got it yet you might as well be dead." 'Nuff said. 
