I can honestly say this is the first pumpkin-themed ukulele album I’ve ever reviewed. In fact, it’s the first pumpkin-themed ukulele album I’ve ever heard.
California-based musician Scott Mead has focused on the fruit instead of ghosts and ghouls to celebrate Halloween and it’s just a lot of fun.
The 10-track album starts with a solid original called It’s Beginning To Smell A Lot Like Pumpkin, but it’s in the parodies that Mead’s skill and sense of humour is most evident.
Pumpkin Spice uses the John Mellencamp classic Hurts So Good as a base to lampoon the popularity of the seasonal seasoning and we’re left in no doubt as to Mead’s opinion of it: Pumpkin spice in my beer/tastes like a jack-o’-lantern’s ear. Paul Simon gets the Mead treatment with 50 Ways To Carve A Pumpkin and Eww, a send-up of Spandau Ballet’s True, is as silly as it sounds.
Clever lyrics aside, Pumpkin Spice & Parody is extremely well produced. With nothing more than ukes, U-Bass, drums, percussion and voice, Mead has created an impressive sounsdcape.
It’s not surprising that the artist lists “Weird Al” Yankovic and Dr. Demento as inspirations and I’m sure both of those gentlemen would get a kick out of this album. I certainly did.
You can find Pumpkin Spice & Parody here: https://linktr.ee/gscottmead
