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Yes, the title being unnecessarily long WAS necessary.
Yes, the title being unnecessarily long WAS necessary.
Today, I set out to do the unthinkable -- something that was long believed to be impossible: the same thing I did 3 months ago. But this time, it's with a different white guy!! The musical works of Neil Cicierega, specifically after when he adopted the Lemon Demon name in 2003. I'm just cutting it off there because I haven't listened to the Deporitaz albums yet. Maybe someday I'll revisit this page. Additionally, even though they're EPs, I'm including Nature Tapes and I Am Become Christmas. Either way, I piss somebody off.
Again, my favorite Lemon Demon album is about as much a mystery as what day of the week it is today. Okay, maybe that doesn't work as an analogy; I have no idea when you're reading this. If I were to wrongly identify this Wednesday as a Friday, the joke would only work 6 times out of 7!! My love for Damn Skippy is about as secret as my love for Running With Scissors. That is to say, not much of one. Yeah, I like it. New Way Out is a personal favorite on the album, but there's really not a wrong choice you can make.
Starting the "piss-people-off" train early, eh? Yeah, I'm ticking off the people who think Nature Tapes is an EP by including it on a list of albums, while also pissing off the people who think it's an album by calling it an EP. It's an EP. It's also one of the greatest musical works to grace this Earth. Nature Tapes is also the first Lemon Demon thing I went out of my way to purchase legally; maybe a year or two ago I bought the MP3s on Neil's Bandcamp. Of course, since then, I've bought the CD, cassette, and vinyl record. Two Trucks was the gateway drug I used to introduce my mother to the world of Lemon Demon beyond the Ultimate Showdown.
Call it a "basic bitch" choice if you will. Sure, it's his most popular album to date. Maybe it is excessively popular. But that's all for good reason. Spirit Phone is the most polished Lemon Demon work since... well, since Lemon Demon formed. There's really not a bad song on this album. Even the bonus tracks are highly polished! Of course, Neil had 8 years to work on this album; there's no reason it wouldn't be.
Spirit Phone may be the most well known Lemon Demon album, but Dinosaurchestra has some of the most well known Lemon Demon songs. That is, two of them. But of course, any album with The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny deserves to make the top 5. And Fine is... okay, too. What Will Happen Will Happen is better in my opinion, but that's neither here nor there.
Of course, you can't leave the top 5 without even mentioning one of Neil's four mashup albums, and my pick of the four is 2017's Mouth Moods. I mean, you have Floor Corn (Bodies by Drowning Pool w/ Hot Butter's Popcorn), Bustin' (Neil's take on Ray Parker Jr's Ghostbusters), Smooth (Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal with the vocals of One Week by the Barenaked Ladies), and Mouth Pressure (Queen's Under Pressure with All Star by Smash Mouth). My personal favorite is Smooth, but again; not a bad choice on here.
Mouth Moods is closely followed by its 2020 followup, Mouth Dreams. Featuring equally ridiculous songs as its DayQuil*, such as Yahoo (an almost angelic choir built entirely out of the Yahoo yodel jingle), SpongeRock (Queen's We Will Rock You paired with the theme song from Spongebob Squarepants), and Closerflies (Nine Inch Nails' Closer w/ Owl City's Fireflies). Personally, my favorite song of the album at the moment is Closerflies.
View-Monster is another good album. It's not in my top 5, of course, but it does have a few good songs on it. The Satirist's Love Song, Marketland, and Knife Fight are my favorites, but I never quite got the appeal of Spring Heeled Jack or Ask for Nothing. It's much more of a hit-and-miss album for me than the other albums I've mentioned so far.
I don't really have much to say about them, but this seems like a good place to put the other two Mouth albums, Sounds and Silence.
Hip to the Javabean is the 3rd Lemon Demon album. It has quite a few great songs, like Matches and Nails, I Know Your Name, and I've Got Some Falling To Do. However, it also has a few misses, like Go To Hollywood and Sick Puppy. I'm sorry Javabean fans. I just... don't like it. Not my fault you like an only-okay album.
2012's Christmas EP, I Am Become Christmas, is also a little iffy in my opinion. It's only about 16 minutes long, which makes it feel lacking in substance. I love Aurora Borealis, don't get me wrong, but I wish it were a little longer. Additionally, an instrumental opener feels like an odd choice for such a short EP. I get it on an hour-long album like View-Monster, but on a 16 minute EP?
Next are the two albums that released in 2003, Clown Circus and Live from the Haunted Candle Shop. Both of them are good albums, and they both have standout songs - Clown Circus with Lemon Demon, Hazel's Modus Operandi, and Hyakugojyuuichi 2003, and Live from the Haunted Candle Shop with Party On The Moon, Dance Like an Idiot, and Birdhouse In Your Soul. As much as I like dancing like an idiot, I think I have to give Clown Circus the edge. After all, one of my standout tracks from Candle Shop is a cover of a They Might Be Giants song.
So with that, my final top 13 list is as follows:
And before you go back, I want to remind you... if you think I wrongly put your favorite in the bottom 3... well, you're STILL only as wrong as you think I am.