Where on earth do you start with an album called Dinosaur Planet? The title alone sells it. It’s an album destined for a catchy tagline and a deep voiceover – “In a world.. where dinosaurs rule”. It so effortlessly distinguishes itself from any other music in the indiepop world that it feels futile to try.
But MJ gave me a free album and told me to review it, so here I am.
It’s a musical about dinosaurs. A comedy musical. And, confusingly, the dinosaurs are invading this planet, instead of living on their own. Presumably, they come from their own planet full of dinosaurs. Maybe an idea for the sequel. (Don’t give him any ideas – ed.). The album works on its own, but it has had a relatively successful tour as a musical at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which shows how unusual this album is. It’s not really an album so much as a musical, which significantly changes the dynamic here.
The style of comedy will be familiar to listeners of Radio 4 comedies. It’s gentle, slightly absurd, and incredibly low-budget. MJ revels in the mundanity of everyday life, contrasting it against outlandish concepts – such as universities of space, space dinosaurs, space robots, space lasers, pretty much most things related to space. It’s very self-aware, slipping in popular culture references to common tropes: whether it be red shirts from Star Trek in Don’t, Darren, Don’t or a legal threat from Transformers about their robots. My favourite parts, somewhat predictably, are those about the hell hole that is East Anglia – I hail from that part of the world myself. In fact, my old secondary school is personally mentioned in The Battle of Peterborough, though I would be quick to tell MJ that Orton Longueville School has actually been rebranded Nene Park Academy. The power of rock, ladies and gentlemen. Also, when’s the last time Stamford was ever mentioned in an album? I’m frankly amazed. Great swimming pool, too.
The music is gentle, largely acoustic based, and acts as a vehicle to carry the meat across – the lyrics. Certainly one thing I would advise is that this is not an album you should expect to find hits on. It’s an album to be digested as a whole, as a sit down exercise. At 33 tracks (albeit short, but still), it’s a feast to get through, too, with several repeats. What worries me most about the album is that somewhat because of the length, there’s a lot of filler - a couple of songs are repeated, like the theme tune and Here Come the Dinosaurs. Whilst we’re talking about that track, I swear the intro sounds an awful lot like Velocity Girl by Primal Scream.
If you don’t enjoy the concept of a musical, you’ll probably struggle to find songs you want to listen to. That said, there are some great pop hits among the rest. Please Don’t Eat Us is hilarious and endlessly inventive. Literature Search too, although quite short., and My Grandad is Nuts would make sense on any album. In fact, if you need to need to listen to any track on the album, it’s probably the most obvious start:
So yeah, Dinosaur Planet. If you enjoy MJ Hibbett already, you’ll find plenty to like here, as it’s his normal stuff except with a plotline. If you don’t, you’ll probably be slightly bewildered and maybe you should check out some of his other stuff first – there’s a lot to digest here. Or, even better, see him live, because he puts on a really great live show.
(Other pictures of MJ’s recent show at Popfest 2012 are available in the gallery, though they’re a bit jumbled)
