The 1957 Tail-Fin Fiasco are back. Their calling card of campy humor married to tight rock-pop songcraft are back, too, with their new set of songs Are You Sure?.
Aside from a one-off Christmas ditty, the Fiasco took a four year hiatus. During that time, Essex England’s David Myers and Malcolm Moore — the Walter Becker and Donald Fagen of the band — have each put forth solo records (the former under the guise of The Brothers El Camino). With their wild oats sown, the pair started 2025 mounting their comeback.
Are You Sure? is cheerful pop like all other TFF records but has a bit more of an avant side to it this go around. The Frank Zappa humor for grown-ups is there but so are some Zappa chunky chord sequences and even a nod to the doo wop music he loved (“Bench Warmers”). “Strictly Hickory” has those FZ signifiers with a marimba tossed into it in case you missed the similarities.
Myers, the lyricist, shows a wide imagination when picking times and places for his stories, typically set across the pond in the USA or back home in England. “The Commissionaire & The V.I.P.” with its boogaloo beat chronicles a 60s romance in London while “It’s Not All About Eve” is set in 1979 at an actual infamous episode of Top of the Pops, while the aforementioned “Strictly Hickory” is cast in present-day Alabama. “Do You Think I Might Be Jesus?” imagines the Son of Man returning to spread the word where people are more likely to congregate today (hint: not church), set to a replica of a theme for an 80’s sitcom.
Music styles are just as varied, and perhaps not a surprise that “Not My First Rodeo” leans toward the Western side of Country and Western. “Happy Couple” is a four on the floor dancefloor enticement but with actual bridges thought out. But as always, the style matches the narrative: “We Finish On A Song” portrays a clown boot camp where the routine needs to end with a tune, swerving anxiously between breezy pop and a Broadway show tune.
Pick up Are You Sure? right this moment from Bandcamp.
*** The 1957 Tail-Fin Fiasco on Amazon ***
