Straight Outta Newport

This band has spent the past year touring the UK with groups like Snow Patrol, The Darkness, The Streets, and The Libertines. Their latest album has sold 200,000 in the UK alone. For fans of The Darkness, The Streets, Beastie Boys, and Ali G. This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.

They say humor and music shouldn't mix, but it seems no one told leisurewear-clad Welsh rap octet Goldie Lookin' Chain: Straight Outta Newport, a major-label compilation of the highlights of their last five self-released CD-Rs, is the rare comedy record that transcends its laugh-out-loud novelty. The gags they offer are seldom sophisticated--the presence of a song titled "Your Mother's Got A Penis" has probably already alerted you to that fact--but the jokes come thick and fast, and there's enough deft characterization to GLC members Dwain Xain, Mr. Love Eggs, and The Maggot to drag the likes of "Half-Man, Half-Machine" and "Soap Bar" into the realms of situation comedy. Many of their best ideas are stolen: "Guns Don't Kill People, Rappers Do" nabs a vocal hook from KRS-One's "Sound of the Police," while "Self Suicide" makes a cheeky rip from '90s rap goths Gravediggaz. But for all the petty theft on show, the GLC aren't lacking in ideas--there's not a bad track here. --Louis Pattison