Before you think the title means I hate Doug Benson’s new album Unbalanced Load, it doesn’t. I actually like it, I just think content wise it is a bit unbalanced. The first four tracks got more smiles than laughs out of me. Once it goes into the fifth track it gets much funnier.
I’m admittedly a previous fan of Doug Benson’s. Not a longtime fan; I think I first started following his work closely earlier this year when I first saw Super High Me. I was familiar with him from VH1′s now canceled show Best Week Ever and an appearance he made on Curb Your Enthusiasm. After becoming one of his Twitter followers and buying an autographed copy of his previous album Professional Humoredian I was afraid I’d either like this too much or that he would drop the ball. Here are my unbiased thoughts on it.
YAY:
- While Doug Benson is a pot comic and most of his jokes are about weed, the jokes where he strays away from that formula are his best. Regardless, he will constantly remind you that he was high while doing whatever he is telling you about.
NAY:
- This could be the downside of knowing a comedians material too well or following them on Twitter, but I feel like I’ve heard a decent amount of these jokes before. That, and he often talks about past things he has done that his fans will instantly recognize. Also, the self-promotion of said work is a little heavy.
- He recycles some of the ideas from his previous album, like the states that allow medical marijuana and anti-pot ads on television. He does talk about different ads though.
- If listening with headphones on, the microphones picks up a little too much and you can hear people muttering in the back and the sounds of silverware hitting plates.
That’s three nay’s and only one yay. Still, I didn’t hate it, I kind of liked it. The funny parts outweigh the bad parts. Sure, he use themes he’s done before and promotes himself a lot, but outside of that it’s very funny. It may not be one of the best comedy albums I’ve ever heard, but it taught me something about myself while listening to it. Even though I’m twenty-five, a fart joke or farting sounds are still funny to me. If you’ve liked Doug Benson in any of the things you’ve seen him in, than this is definitely worth the $10 download off of iTunes.
(Edit: I didn’t do this on purpose , but Microsoft Word’s word count tool claims that I have written a 420 word review of a Doug Benson album, how perfect.)
