After a superb original album and a few delays waiting for the sequel, the long awaited sequel to Songs in the Key of Springfield. Yet again it mixes lots of original and often hilarious songs, some variations on Danny Elfman's Main Title Theme and the odd smattering of dialogue. If you have perused the track listing, you'll notice that there are quite a lot of tracks, even more than the original and so reviewing each item is going to be impossible, but there are plenty of highlights. One that I've not seen on the show is a superb spoof of the classic musical Mary Poppins, this time featuring Shary Bobbins as the cynical nanny that the Simpsons employ to help run their household more smoothly. The social satire is almost on a par with that of someone like Randy Newman, but is definitely played for laughs. Cut Every Corner twists the theme from Spoonful of Sugar to become a commentry on how to do things more easily and how lazy people are. Meet the Flintstones just has Homer singing, but the real joke is right at the end. I'd forgotton how funny it was... Underwater Wonderland spoofs a more recent musical, The Little Mermaid and in particular Under the Sea as Homer suggests the family escapes its ills by running away to live under the sea. Yes, quite.
The Field of Excellence features the theme song from an award ceremony in which Homer is awarded the "Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence" which is apparntly the thinnest award ceremony ever apart from the Emmys. Too true. In the middle of an otherwise mediocre episode, The City of New York vs. Homer Simpsons does feature one excellent song that appears when Marge and the kids go to see "You're Checkin' In." Billed as a musical journey through the Betty Ford Center, who'd have thought it? The Garbageman Song from Trash of the Titans is a toe tapping and amusing song that demonstrates that garbagemen can do pretty much almost anything. Scorpio is one of two spoof Bond efforts, the other being Blessed be the Guy that Bonds. The former seems to have brief snatches of Goldfinger, but seems a bit too "nice" sounding, although the latter couldn't be any more like John Barry if it tried. The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase features the three theme tunes that are featured; the 70's cop show inspired Chief Wiggam P.I., the cheesy piss take Love-Matic Grampa and the ultra naff Simpsons Smile-Time Variety Hour.
Cape Feare is one of the best spoofs that the Simpsons ever did with the ever brilliant Kelsey Grammer as the bitter psychopath Sideshow Bob. Starting with a brief, slightly altered version of Bernard Herrmann's great four note main motif it then transforms into a short medley of songs from H.M.S. Pinafore. It all makes so much more sense in context. Well, a bit more sense anyhow. The Land of Chocolate is one of Homer's best musical daydream sequences as he skips through a world of chocolate munching at anything he sees set to a tripping pizzicato string tune; cheesy in the extreme, but fun. One of my favourite songs was Talkin' Softball and I was delighted to see that it was featured here. It's the kind of song that could easily have gone as the end title to the Natural as even though the lyrics aren't totally appropriate, the music definitely is. The final half dozen tracks are extras including the wretching during We Love to Smoke, the delightfully tasteless Jolly Bengali Theme for Apu, an extended demo of the Garbageman Song, an extended Senor Burns (which was actually featured on the original album in a shorter form) and a brief bit of fantasy for Smithers. He doesn't fancy Mr Burns, much.
What can you say about an album like this? The songs are often ripped blatently, but that's the point. They are all wonderfully arranged and the singing makes up in gusto what it lacks in finesse, the lyrics are often hilarious and always quite pointed. Perhaps some of the tracks could have been combined (like the Mary Poppins spoof songs on what track), but otherwise another cracking album from Alf Clausen and the talented writers and performers of the 90's best TV show.
Rating ~ 
Total Time ~ 59:41