The Body Snatchers - Feeling Good, Looking Nice, Smelling Right

Not taking yourself too seriously can lead to wacky and wondrous things, and such is the case with The Body Snatchers' Feeling Good, Looking Nice, Smelling Right. Thirty second comedy skits with ukuleles in-between dirty crunk and rap lines like ‘you think I fixed it like Jimmy?’ makes this collection somewhat unique. The whole album could be interpreted as a tongue-in-cheek parody of gangster rap, but then again, there’s nothing clean or superficial about it. The album places its roots in the gritty and grimy hip-hop movement called ‘hyphy’ that originated in the San Francisco Bay Area some 10 years ago, and the bass grates and growls, the rapping flows continuously, and the beats have a futuristic, relentless hip-hop/ragga/crunk roll. Dancing to hyphy really means letting go - dance terms include ‘getting stupid’ and ‘going dumb’ - and as you uncontrollably bop your head and upper body to tracks like ‘Freaky Ho’ and ‘Backseat Anthem’, you wonder what kind of ridiculous body popping you would be breaking out if you weren’t sitting on the bus. [Josh Coppersmith-Heaven]