Rating: 9/10

Flight of the Conchords hit that seldom-struck sweet spot, mixing just the right amounts of comedy and musical talent on their first full-length studio album.

New Zealand duo Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement have a restrained, self-deprecating style that is especially refreshing. Among musical comics such as the more aggressive Tenacious D, the Conchords often make themselves the punch lines, instead of attacking others.

Nealry all the tracks evoke a sense of modesty. In “A Kiss Is Not a Contract,” McKenzie sings a dismissal to the ladies who think playing tonsil hockey is a pass “to score the goal that’s in my jockey.” In “The Most Beautiful Girl (in the Room),” Clement woos a fellow party-goer with the decidedly unexaggerated flattery of, “When you’re on the street / depending on the street / I’ll bet you are definitely in the top three / good-looking girls on the street.”

But while the album stands strong on its own, it can be well-augmented by the Conchords’ HBO series of the same name.

More or less, the show follows McKenzie and Clement as they struggle to succeed in New York, expressing those struggles through two or three songs each episode. Though the tracks were written before the series was conceived, it’s difficult to disassociate them with their video counterparts once you’ve seen them.

“Leggy Blonde,” the band manager Murray’s torch song to a tech support lady, is an almost cringingly sweet number that is built up throughout the episode. For anyone who’s seen Murray pine for his crush, listening to the song is delightful. If you don’t know who Murray is, it takes something away from the listening experience.

So while the Conchords’ musical expertise and creativity come shining through in the record, it’s not complete without the context of the video.

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