Robert Christgau: Dean of American Rock Critics

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Consumer Guide Album

Smash Mouth: Fush Yu Mang [Interscope, 1997]
By calculation or osmosis, this unrad agglomeration of semiprofessional entertainers puts bells on the humorous humanism of ska twice removed. As you'd figure, the key is songs, most of them by late-arriving guitarist Greg Camp, whose hardcore links are even more theoretical than his bandmates'. His fondly ignorant take on the hippie moment could be Bertrand Russell by pop standards, and how about the album-opening "Flo"? I couldn't swear radio is ready for a cheerful ditty begging the title lesbian to take the singer's girlfriend back. But the world is. A-