Superorganism - Superorganism

As the phrase goes, the group Superorganism is a mystery wrapped up in an enigma, or at least that is what they would have you believe.  The group trades on the story that an international group in search of a lead singer stumbles upon a high school kid in Maine, who goes by the name of Orono (which also happens to be the name of a town in Maine) and who also magically puts lyrics together as the missing link to their first hit song.  Add to that a cast of single name characters like Harry, Emily, B, Soul and the doubly named Robert Strange (weird!) and you have the beginnings of starting to create some hype.  The group’s website invokes the Myspace beginnings of the World Wide Web, and comes complete with its own side scrolling video game where you get to maneuver a whale that shoots bananas through an onslaught of other sea creatures (fun!).  The group did launch a super catchy single last fall, ‘Something for Your M.I.N.D.’, which lifted the best line from an obscure 25 year old Dutch electronic track by the long forgotten Speedy J.  This could have had something to do with the song's sudden disappearance, but the trippy dippy track has returned along with nine more tracks on their self-named debut album.

The lead single with its dopey spoken word lyrics - “Mama needs food, how about a barbecue?” - and rubbery rhythms along with the deadpan sample of the title line is radio ready hit single material.  Even some of the follow-on singles make for fun listens.  The best of those being, ‘Everybody Wants to be Famous’ with its social media take-down - “everybody wants, nobody’s ashamed” - and languidly loping sound.  The sing-songy and slightly damaged sounding ‘Nobody Cares’ isn’t bad and the closing ‘Night Time’ accounts for the only worthwhile track that hasn’t already been released. 

Echoing the samples of snores and yawns later in the album, the bulk of what else appears here is decidedly dull.  ‘Nai’s March’ does have a quirky little vapor wave vibe complete with some video game pings, but tracks like ‘Prawn Song’, ’Relax’, and the oh so cleverly titled theme song ‘SPRORGNSM’ have little to redeem them.  

If the group and their handlers spent as much time on their music as they have contriving their story and retro vibe maybe something more could have come of this.  The booming voice at the beginning of the album intoning “Good morning Orono” along with everything being a bit off center brings to mind what the Teletubbies might have grown up to be.  The hype and gimmick of Superorganism already seems to be fading quicker than Tinky Winky’s star power and he had the benefit of catering to the easily mesmerized toddler set.  Maybe the targeted teen audience will allow the group to milk this for a bit, but as attention spans go these days this is sure to be a short-lived moment in the sun.