In an age when popular music was characterised by sombre young men in dark trench coats, American duo Barnes & Barnes provided some much needed relief. Formed in 1970, they came to prominence eight years later and, in what proved to be an amazing piece of serendipity, had a sound in tune with the nascent new wave movement along with a look tailor made for the soon-to-be-launched MTV cable channel. 1978 novelty single ‘Fish Heads’ was their bridgehead into the nation’s consciousness and they’d go on to release a series of irreverent, quirky albums that would inspire countless artists. Originally unleashed in 1987, Zabagabee: The Best Of Barnes & Barnes collated the cream from those early records (plus three non-album cuts) to make a collection that truly lived up to its title. Lovingly reissued via Liberation Hall, this is the perfect way to rekindle your passion for Barnes & Barnes, and if you’ve yet to make their acquaintance, you’re in for a treat.

School friends Robert Haimer and Bill Mumy (Art Barnes and Artie Barnes) initially nurtured their creativity with a Super 8 camera, producing a series of art films (hence their pseudonyms) and they carried that cinematic quality over into their musical career. Tracks such as ‘Blithering’ would make the perfect accompaniment to a David Lynch film, their surrealist nature suggests that the wall separating this world from the next is paper thin and Barnes & Barnes might burst through it at any moment. Case in point being ‘Boogie Woogie Amputee’, a track that’s so intangible it’s impossible to pull apart and analyse; Barnes & Barnes are akin to American scribe Robert Frost, sometimes a poem about chopping wood really is about chopping wood, ergo a song titled ‘Party In My Pants’ is about, well, that should be obvious. It is a detached deconstructionism with which Barnes & Barnes operate; like breaking the fourth wall in cinema where an actor talks directly to the camera, Barnes & Barnes will step outside of the songs while they are in progress, pulling them apart to show their inner workings. That makes their songs both cerebral and insanely fun, and whilst many bands operate in both spheres, none can pull them together in a cohesive whole like Barnes & Barnes

New wave as a genre was the perfect vehicle for this Los Angeles duo, not only was its jerky, twitchy nature in perfect sync with the lyrics, but the endless possibilities it offered musically is utilised to great effect. It means that no two songs inhabit the same sonic space, each track becomes a vignette, a piece of musical theatre that renders them the natural successors to Brecht and Weill. Case in point being ‘Cemetery Girls’, a track that places the listener in a nocturnal graveyard, with words and music combining to create three-dimensional structures in which the listener is plays a starring role. That’s perhaps the greatest gift music can give, and Barnes & Barnes deliver on each of these fifteen tracks.

Barnes & Barnes are the (often) overlooked link between Allan Sherman and Weird Al Yankovic, and if proof were ever needed, look no further.

• Zabagabee: The Best Of Barnes & Barnes is released via Liberation Hall and is available now.

Track List:

1. Fish Heads
2. Blithering
3. Soak It Up
4. Ah Ā
5. Boogie Woogie Amputee
6. Life Is Safer When You’re Sleeping
7. Unfinished Business
8. Pussy Whipped
9. What’s New Pussycat?
10. Party In My Pants
11. Don’t You Wanna Go To The Moon
12. Pizza Face
13. Love Tap
14. I Don’t Remember Tomorrow
15. Cemetery Girls
16. When You Die