“0/10 would not
go again!”
As long as people have been making music, we’ve been
making party songs. Rock is no exception; bands like AC/DC have been making songs to pump people up since
forever ago. It only makes sense; Rock is often an energetic genre, so you’d
figure it’s well suited to party music. Over the years, there have been good
party songs and bad party songs. But sometimes a band defies categories.
Today’s band is one of
those exceptions.
Complete is an independent band from Dallas, formed in 1995. The
band mostly formed around a common love for hard rock acts of the 1970s and
1980s, like Led Zeppelin and Metallica.
In a 1996 televised performance, Complete achieved the impossible by simultaneously creating the best and worst party song ever written.
On the one hand, every
instrument is playing in its own time signature, and it utterly fails at being
a party song. When the drums and bass start, it seems like the song might have some promise or a good buildup. When the lead guitar kicks in, it isn't so much being played as it is being strangled off-key. And really, the real victim in this whole thing is the guitar. They may have played this in a bar, but you could never be drunk enough for this song to sound good.
The band's problems with timing manifest themselves in another important way. Normally, a party song has a fast/driving beat designed to get people going. But the problem with "Hoogie Boogie Land" is that everyone is playing their own song. Any momentum this song had is wiped out once the other instruments join in after the bass. With no good beat, the song really falls flat.
The vocals leave a lot to be desired, too. I think the singer is going for an Ozzy Osbourne style, but the singer can't pull it off. The vocals aren't so much sung as
they are grunted, almost like the singer needs some extra fiber in his diet.
To be honest, I have to wonder if the band was intentionally trying to fuck with the audience. There’s all this buildup from the lead singer (“You want to hear our version of a party song?”), and then the playing starts. They couldn’t have been that oblivious to the quality of their own playing, right?
When the song does end (after almost four and a half minutes!), the audience probably isn't cheering because they enjoyed their trip to Hoogie Boogie Land. They're happy because the song ended. Does Hoogie Boogie Land come with some sort of money back guarantee? I sure hope so!
But one the other hand, they are oddly enjoyable to watch. I mean, sure it sounds like they all played the wrong instruments blindfolded... but they seem like they're pretty likable guys. The lead singer still seems to get the audience going despite the terrible playing and constipated vocals. That's kind of why this is a great party song: despite the fact it has everything working against it, it's almost enjoyable to watch Complete perform it.
Conclusion:
Overall, "Hoogie Boogie Land" is a failure of a party song. Every instrument is badly out of time, the guitar and bass are playing different songs entirely, and the drums can't carry a good rhythm. But just like The Big M, it's a really enjoyable failure.
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