Sweet, sweet kitsch is this. "Moroccan stench of mustard burning," sings vocal wanderer Angela Faye Tillett, followed by, of course, "headache and nausea" on "Mustard Yellow," the first track on Death by Chocolate's self-titled CD. The story of the band is a cryptic as the music oozing from it; teenager Tillett rambles cutting nursery rhymes over Doors-esque flourishes and "Laugh-In" cool jerks, while a production duo of Bristol-ites, Jeremy Butler and John Austin, sit back and laugh.
You wouldn't think it would make for a whole album, but thinking isn't the goal here. Instead, it's the whimsy of hallucinogen reflections on sugarloafs, lemonade and bumblebees that effectively balance child-like innocence with sinister contextualism. To further the lackadaisical formula, there are playful revisits -- "Who Needs Wings to Fly" from "The Flying Nun" series, and the seminal "Harold & Maude" centerpiece, "If You Want to Sing Out Sing Out" -- leaving the listener with the distinct feeling that they might jump rope until they die.
