To be fair, some of the samples that Ugly Duckling utilizes for the album are effective: The surf rock guitars in "Dumb It Down" lend the track needed momentum; the delicate keystrokes on "Abigail Silk" add a nice lilting touch, particularly when the beat drops during the third verse. But for the most part, the production oscillates among satiric commercial jingles, senseless recycling of old-school themes, and the sort of ostensibly playful and eclectic sound that resembles a lobotomized Prince Paul.
Still, the musical missteps are minor in comparison to the pitfalls encountered by Ugly Duckling's MCs. The lyrics are intended to be an oh-so-clever indictment of a hypercommercialized society in which pop culture is dumbed down ("Dumb It Down"), the resistance is stupidly radicalized ("La Revolucion"), and all art is commercial art (the mock jingles sprinkled throughout the album). And while this sounds great on paper -- in a silly and self-reflexive way -- Ugly Duckling addresses the ideas in such an insipid manner that it's hard to care. Stilted flows, flat deliveries, and banal lyrics are the order of the day. By the time the album culminates in a war between vegans and carnivores, you've lost interest in who will win because you already know who the ultimate loser is: the listener.
