Search - Barry Louis Polisar :: Little Different

One of a dozen or so reasons to love Barry Louis Polisar's A Little Different is its ability to entertain unflaggingly and at full throttle on two levels. Polisar not only jointly captivates parent/child combos with scandalous songs such as "I Don't Brush My Teeth and I Never Comb My Hair"--in which the protagonist confesses that "The teacher never calls on me / I'm almost sure she'll faint / She says my grammar's good enough / But I'm almost sure it ain't"--he also cleverly draws every last listener in with inclusive lyrics such as "Who got a boo-boo / You got a boo-boo / I got a boo-boo, too." Accessibility aside, though, Polisar proves on this album that, despite a 10-year lapse between albums, he's firmly in command of his customary hilarity. To wit, there's "These Are Not My Children" ("My kids don't drop cookie crumbs / When they eat a snack / My kids wear clean underwear / My kids don't talk back"), "I Still Don't Like Asparagus" ("I still don't," he helpfully points out in the liner notes), and "Bad Guys Broke into Our Car," a true-life tale of a bizarre burglary. But that's playing favorites. Each of this album's 17 tracks is genuinely funny, and as if that weren't enough, its music--especially Ray Tilkens's guitar work, though Polisar's toilet flushes and horse hooves are also memorable--is outstanding. Polisar may be "A Little Different," but that's what makes him and, by extension, this album wonderful, and worthy of a much wider audience than what they've found so far. --Tammy La Gorce