The album Thank You Valued Customer from Shplang has confounded me. I like the music. But I don’t know how to tell you. Here is what the band, the core duo of Peter Marston and John Krausetells us about creating the music, which I feel is the backbone of this album. The music propels the lyrics forward.

Peter Marston tells us, “Although we write the songs playing together, we do not record basic tracks live. It’s all one instrument at a time (which in part is why we have an embarrassingly lengthy gestation period). We lay down, in turn, a drum machine, guitar (or bass), bass (or guitar), second guitar, keys, solos, sound effects real and electronic, vocals, live drums, and then, at the end, wipe the drum machine. I’m exhausted writing it! It gives us a fairly controlled sound, but also allows a lot of attention to detail which is an important part of the Shplang sound.”

I totally respect these guys for paying attention to the details in the music. “Music is the space between the notes,” is a quote attributed to French composer Claude Debussy, with jazz trumpeter Miles Davis famously expressing similar ideas several decades later. I feel that quote could easily be applied to Peter Marston and John Krausetells and their musical craftsmanship.

Although Shpland gives us a master class on how to make intelligent music, the lyrics are another story. Peter tells us they never spend more than 15 minutes writing the lyrics. This does not mean the lyrics are bad; they are pretty good, considering the brief amount of time it takes to write them. From my perspective, it tells me that the music is the thing, and they nail that with some interesting turns of phrase. For example, they have the song Das Diddley in German, with a hat tip to Rammstein, a German Neue Deutsche Härte band. Later in the album, Shplang throws in a song sung in French, À Son Son.

Scattered within the album are a couple of tracks that mesmerized me. Look Me Over is a psychedelic song about drunkenness. Having years of experience with drunkenness and then recovery, I keep my ears open to songs about those touchstones of addiction. Everyone Can Change is a song of hope that follows Look Me Over, with some intelligent lyrics.

“Don’t get tired or lose your way; everyone can change.”

“Baby Hobo” is trippy. It has lyrical styling reminiscent of the coffee shop beat scene in the late 1950s. I can just imagine Leonard Cohen sitting around a table with in a New York bagel shop with Peter and John. The baby noises in the song take me back to when my son was born and it put a smile on my face.

I caught an earworm from the song Lay A Little Love On Me. It has a funky groove that has dug in, and has lived there for three days. The next track cracks me up, Peter Marston and John Krausetells describe it as “an irreverent study in comparative religion, but mostly Shplang’s interpretation of slow-burn funk.” The title is Buddha (What Was That?), and it is an easy highlight for me (a retired pastor).

Next, Shplang delivers a catchy little nonsense song closer to hard rock than the other tracks on this album. They tell us that “Little Mushroom Men from Mars” is a sci-fi parable set to an amalgam of prog and heavy metal. One of our favourite bands is Klaatu, and I can see their influence here, especially in the lyrics and the double-tracked narration in the verses. Scott Goldbaum played the shredding guitar solos and was the third guy to take a shot—it isn’t easy! Laying in the telemetry and rocket launch sound effects here was challenging and rewarding.”

I am a fan of Klaatu, and the Little Mushroom Men From Mars has that flavour on full display. Shplang closes the album with another mirthful song, She, The Fair Bag Girl.

So, there we have it, an album of catchy tunes to brighten your day! Week? Month! Just listen to it see if it brightens your day the same way that it brightened mind, with a bonus earworm.