LUDO - LUDO

Normally I hate spoken word in rock songs, but Ludo\'s song \"Good Will Hunting By Myself\" is an exception. It\'s amusingly self-deluding as a guy tries to convince himself he\'s better off after his girlfriend dumps him. The spoken word in the middle gets more and more frenetic, until he\'s talking trash like, \"Yes, your ass did look fat in those jeans. Your mom\'s a MILF, and I plan to get on your little sister just as soon as I call her back!\" It might read misogynistic, but doesn\'t come across that way in the song. It\'s a funny (yet hurt) guy venting about things he\'d never actually do.
All the tracks on Ludo\'s self-titled debut LP are this sharp and funny. It\'s also brimming with humorous pop culture references for those of us who grew up in the Eighties, like The Wonder Years (\"Ode To Kevin Arnold\") or Elliot getting drunk by E.T. drinking (\"Saturday Night Thunderbolt\"). Even the band\'s name comes from Labyrinth! (Ludo was a big, scary Muppet thing in that trippy, Eighties, kiddie flick. No, not David Bowie\'s cod piece. That was named \"Debbie St. Sinclair\".)
The references are quick and funny, but serve as description and storytelling devices, not just vapid, pointless attempts at sounding cool to the twenty something set. Frontman Andrew Volpe\'s songwriting is wittily effective, and it\'s accompanied by some terrific pop/punk music (think Blink 182 or American Hi-Fi with a higher IQ). On this, their debut LP, Ludo\'s crafted an appealing collection of ditties that are fun, without insulting your intelligence.