When checking the mail today, I was mostly hoping for a copy of “Heart On,” the oh-so cleverly/naughtily titled third album from Eagles of Death Metal. I didn't get that, but I got something arguably* better – “Undeniable,” the “first new non-soundtrack album” by fictional trio Alvin and the Chipmunks.
Riding a crest of fame buoyed by the $217 million take of last year's feature film (seriously, it actually made that much), Alvin, Simon and Theodore are back with an album of covers and “four new Chipmunks originals,” whatever that means given the fact that the composer of classic Chipmunks numbers like “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late),” Ross Bagdasarian, Sr., has been dead for nearly four decades. Essentially, they're treating them like real people, a practice that is just as creepy as when Kermit the Frog is on talk shows and the host has to act like there isn't a dude sitting there.
Covers include “Livin' On A Prayer,” “All The Small Things” and – oh goody! – “Don't Stop Believing,” because the perfect cure for how overexposed that song has been in pop culture these last few years is to have it song by Alvin and the Chipmunks. Also on the record is a collaboration with Drew Seeley, the natural evolution in the career of a man whose past credits include being Zac Efron's singing voice in the original “High School Musical” and guest starring on “The Suite Life of Zach and Cody.”
“Undeniable” is being released by Razor N Tie, the label home of “KIDZ BOP,” a genuinely disturbing line of records where an adult singer is joined by a chorus of anonymous little kids singing currently popular songs, often which are wholly inappropriate when sung by a chorus of anonymous little kids. Here's the Kidz Bop version of cheery Green Day favorite “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” playing over the original video. (Yes, they cut out the f-word.)
*if you're a moron
