Does It Offend You, Yeah? - You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into

You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into (2008, Virgin) Does It Offend You, Yeah?'s first studio album. ***1/2

Despite having one of the worst band names ever, Does It Offend You, Yeah? aren't half bad. They're not masters of electronica or alternative rock. In fact, they're pretty juvenile, but at least they know. You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into is a blend of techno and hard rock, something rarely tried, but most notable on Jeff Beck's 2003 release Jeff. Who Else! and You Had It Coming also had these leanings, but Jeff cemented the experiment. Now a group of youths have picked up the torch and attempted to make something out of it. Their work isn't nearly as impressive, but beautiful moments aren't that hard to find.

The main thing that keeps You Have No Idea from being fantastic is its sloppiness; the arrangements feel as if they've only been messing with computers for a bit, like they haven't learned everything in a program such as Photoshop. As a result, there is a sweeping amount of video-game sounds that hark back to ColecoVision. That's not a bad thing, though it does make it difficult to be taken seriously when they want us to. But on "With a Heavy Heart," Does It Offend You, Yeah? hits the exact target they were looking for; heart-pounding, sexy and wailing electronica. Play it the next time you're about to fuck and tell me how it works out.

"Dawn of the Dead" is another pristine song with its early 80's pop stylings, but the rough guitar crunch underneath keeps it grounded. It's the strange times like "Attack of the 60 FT Lesbian Octopus" that makes you do a double-take, as the entire album tends to be over-arranged (typical of a debut). But You Have No Idea is a very fun album, simply made for being cool and not for artistic integrity. (With a Heavy Heart, Dawn of the Dead, Let's Make Out)