Juno

Album Review

Pro-Social Content

The cutesy couplets on Barry Louis Polisar’s “All I Want Is You” express love and propose marriage. Other love songs pine for a sweetheart (“Dearest” by Buddy Holly) or anticipate escaping the insanity of life with someone special (Cat Power’s cover of “Sea of Love”). On “Expectation” Belle & Sebastian empathize with disenfranchised teens stressed about the future. However …

Objectionable Content

That song includes crude sexual references and mild profanities. Antsy Pants alludes to sex and spews the f-word on “Vampire.” Kimya Dawson’s often nonsensical acoustic poetry strays into profane territory as well. Her anti-Bush vitriol on “Loose Lips” employs s- and f-words, then gives way to references to suicide and self-mutilation. Later, she talks of taking the date-rape drug roofies with someone’s spouse (“So Nice So Smart”). A Mott the Hoople remake of David Bowie’s “All the Young Dudes” has leering homosexual overtones as well as lines about stealing clothes, inebriation and suicide. The subject of “A Well Respected Man” (The Kinks) is the arrogant, greedy son of an adulterer. “Piazza, New York Catcher” questions the sexual orientation of a professional baseball player.

Summary Advisory

The playful, acoustic simplicity of this disc is disarming, and nasty stuff gets slipped into its carefree gibberish. Furthermore, the film’s amoral context makes even romantic sentiments less sweet.