Rednex - Sex & Violins - Japan (1995)

What's really funny is that there's a Martin Mull album from 1978 called Sex & Violins, too. Still, the main laugher here is the red up-sell stripe running across Rednex' debut. "Featuring 'Cotton Eye Joe,'" it naturally reads. "The sports arena hit!" Everyone from football supporters to face-painted NFL fans got their elbows a-flyin' to this backwater Euro-dance novelty; needless to say, it has less staying power than a bucket of greasy nachos. "Cotton Eye Joe" is the template for tracks like "Hittin' the Hay," "Riding Alone," and "Fat Sally Lee" -- robotic fiddles stutter over plasticized dance thumps as the vocalists have a good old time mugging on the mike. They sound like aliens who learned to "talk all human 'n' stuff" from intercepted transmissions of Hee Haw. Inane, even for the cartoon land of Euro-dance; makes Mull look like a goddamn genius.~Review by Johnny Loftus