The ostensibly fictitious hard-rock band Spinal Tap has been together, off and on, slightly longer than Katy Perry has been alive, and as of Friday, has released four studio albums and two feature films. Their latest album, “The End Continues,” continues to do what they've always done best: delightfully walk the fine line between clever and stupid. Its release coincides with the sequel film, “Spinal Tap ll: The End Continues.”
When the mockumentary “This is Spinal Tap” and the accompanying debut album
were released in 1984, the idea of a band rocking into middle age still felt mildly ridiculous. Lead vocalist David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) and bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) captured the majestic silliness of perpetual rock ’n’ roll adolescence.
The act has endured through the decades because the core trio remains fiercely committed to the bit. McKean, Guest and Shearer's lyrics are still ridiculous, but plausibly so, and their musical craft and songwriting skills are legitimate. As Spinal Tap, their earnest belief in the everything-ness of rock ’n’ roll is at times riotously funny but ultimately endearing.
With members now in their 70s and 80s, the band no longer goes quite all the way to 11, but the album rewards fans with crisp comedic writing, interesting collaborations with rock royalty, and surprisingly direct confrontation with mortality and the ravages of time.
The 13-track release revisits four favorites from the original album with a little help from their rock-legend friends. Elton John offers vocals on a straightforward remake of “Stonehenge.” As a pioneer of outrageous rock pageantry, John is the right vehicle to take the song right over the top.
Paul McCartney fittingly takes the lead on the Beatles-inspired remake of “Cups and Cakes.” His chuckle early in the song is a little gift to fans, harking back to a similar laugh on the Beatles’ “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.”
Husband-wife duo Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood offer the album’s biggest surprise with a raucous country reimagining of their 1984 track “Big Bottom.” Yearwood gamely serves as the butt of half a dozen cheekily offensive couplets. When Brooks calls out, “Talkin' ’bout mud flaps,” Yearwood gleefully responds, “Yeah, I got ’em.”
Age and mortality figure prominently in the nine new songs with titles such as “Rockin’ in the Urn.” The Survivor-inspired synth-rock “Let’s Just Rock Again” opens with the line, “Even though we’re old and gray / This feels like starting over.”
On “The Devil’s Just Not Getting Old,” the band riffs on aging with the relentless energy they once devoted to goofy sexual innuendo. They muse on Satan’s immortality in a few lyrical lines: “He’s not starting to lose his teeth / He’s not starting to eat less beef,” goes one. “He’s not complaining of shooting pains / He’s not having varicose veins,” is another.
Though “The End Continues” lacks some of the raunchy charms of their original release, it will bring joy to many who have laughed and grown older together with the band.
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“The End Continues” by Spinal Tap
Three and a half stars out of five.
On repeat: “Big Bottom”
Skip It: “I Kissed a Girl”
For fans of: Led Zeppelin, Mad magazine, “The Osbournes”
