Album Notes

"What good are laurels if you can't rest on them?" Verily opines master satirist, gold record performer, and university professor Tom Lehrer, who by all rights could stay content with his magnum opus "The Remains of Tom Lehrer" [Rhino Archives R2 79831]. Yet, what have we here? Nothing less than a Gilbert & Sullivan revue transplanted to the local karaoke bar and techno-rave light show. It's MTV-meets-chemistry-class ... Our star of stage now makes it to the big screen, with an authorized vision destined for cult ephemera collections, academic conference settings, and laughing gas parties alike! "The Elements" is a 100-second DVD animation designed to enliven ye olde periodic table with Lehrer's blistering 88-key self-accompaniment synchronized with a follow-the-bouncing-ball, visual paint-by-numbers libretto gone haywire. Wherein, the rapid-fire stanzas of Lehrer's 1959 studio performance have survived yet further transuranic discoveries, international nomenclature wars, the U.C. Berkeley Element 118 scandal, and Dr. Demento. Very chemical (read psychedelic), a bit Ivy League, and shamelessly interdisciplinary. --Retiarius