JIMMY FALLON
The Bathroom Wall (Dreamworks)
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes

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I like Jimmy Fallon, but I can't say this record shows him at his best.

The first five cuts are all musical, making you wonder, is he trying to be Adam Sandler? Well, no. Sandler, is quite talented as a gross-out artist, and Fallon thankfully doesn't indulge in that. His song lyrics are humorous enough and he also covers several styles really well, rock with two loud tunes, "Road Rage" and "Snowball," more soulful with "Idiot Boyfriend" and perhaps the best, a country ditty called "Drinking In The Woods." However, the tracks aren't exactly fall-on-the-floor-laughing quality and there isn't any connective material between them. They leave you wondering what the album's hook is.

After the music the album shifts gears into a standup session before a loving cell-phone-generation audience where Fallon's material fares a lot better. His impressions of famous comics and entertainers trying out as the new Troll Doll Spokesperson are deadly accurate and engaging. But they are quickly past you. You get only a few stray bits about life in college dorms before he's back to the troll doll theme but this time the impressions are musical ones where he does U2, Counting Crows, Dave Matthews and others, all trying to come up with the new troll jingle. The album ends with "Hammertime" a medley of famous 80's lyrics laid in on top of "U Can't Touch This." (And passing strange, the original sample from Rick James "Super Freak" in U Can't is now double sampled into this bit.) It's great fun but the joke only lasts a minute forty out of the two and a half minute cut.

I'm left scratching my head. My first question is: why is this album called The Bathroom Wall? It's not particularly risqué and not even close to gross out humor. Social commentary? Forget it. My second question is: where is the rest of it? The running time for TBW is under 37 minutes; Fallon has had more time in a single SNL broadcast.

There was a time in a when a comedian could have put five parody songs on one side of a vinyl record and twenty minutes of live routines on the other and had an acceptable album, but in spite of some bright moments, in the age of CDs Fallon's offering is simply not enough.

© 2002 - Rusty Pipes