• Band / Artist : Amateur Transplants – mySpace
• Genre : Comedy
• Sample Track Download : London Underground (Explicit Lyrics)
• Buy CD : Friday Towers
• Buy Digital Download : N/A
• Rating : 8 out of 10

What do you get when you cross 2 fully qualified doctors, chart topping songs and a sometimes down right biting, comical twist? OK so you’ve probably guessed the answer is Amateur Transplants, a two man group consisting of Adam Kay and Suman Biswas, who are actually doctors in England’s national health service. On the whole this isn’t the kind of album for delicate ears, even though some of the songs are derived from everyday children’s favorites, like the Little Mermaid. However, for those of us who like our comedy with no holds barred, this is just one of those albums that doesn’t fail to raise a smile, while at the same time surprising you, when you find yourself laughing at something that you know is oh so wrong.

The album opens with a familiar song, with a title that just rolls off the tongue, “Paracetamoxyfrusebendroneomycin” based on that children’s favorite ” Supercalifragilistic–Expialidocious” from the movie Mary Poppins. The only thing child friendly about this track though, is the title, and that’s because the majority of kids won’t be able to read the title, let alone say it.

I first heard the album complete, in the car and it was the second track, “Nothing at All” based on the Ronan Keating song of the same name, that had my ears pricking up and caused me to laugh out loud. Most of the songs on the album, seem to have lyrics that draw from either their medical or student experiences. All of the tracks on the album are based on fairly familiar songs including, “We Didn’t Start the Fire” Billy Joel, “Eternal Flame” The Bangles and “Any Dream Will Do” from the musical Joseph. It is however the two stand out tracks that really make this album and indeed the tracks that have gained fairly wide coverage on the Internet and podcasts.

The first of these tracks is “London Underground”, based on the classic Jam song “Going Underground”. Whilst the humor is particularly biting and potentially offensive, especially if you work for London Underground, for those of us that have direct first hand experience of strikes, delays and cancelled trains, there will be much to make you laugh. The second of these two stand out tracks is “Northern Birds”, based on the Extreme song, “More Than Words Can Say”. The humor from this stems from the great North South divide and is very funny, especially if you are from the south of England.

With 17 tracks, there’s lots on this album to like. You really need a fairly liberal sense of humor as the language is very, very, very, very (is that enough verys?) strong. There’s much on this album that could be deemed offensive, so you want to be extremely careful before playing it in a work atmosphere or in front of people you are not sure about.

The only real criticism I have of the album, is the sound quality. It’s obvious that these songs were captured live in a non studio environment, but that doesn’t distract too much from the songs themselves. It only really became an issue when I listened to the album on headphones and then the sound became very reminiscent of listening to an album on a Walkmanm without Dolby to get rid of that low level background hiss.

Conclusion : Witty, colourful and sometimes downright offensive. I love it. Admittedly some of the songs loose their appeal pretty quickly. This also isn’t an album that you’re likely to play over and over again, once you’ve become accustomed to the songs. However it is an album that you’ll constantly dig out to amuse your family and friends. That is the ones that are not easily offended. Great stuff and a definite buy for those of you that enjoy a good comedy album.