It's a lot like a bad high school reunion. While other carny dance acts can start to irritate for hanging around too much (à la Fatboy Slim), Bentley Rhythm Ace seems to have hit the dangerous success of simply not coming back with any style. Because For Your Ears Only demands reactions much like... [+] Expand

It's a lot like a bad high school reunion. While other carny dance acts can start to irritate for hanging around too much (à la Fatboy Slim), Bentley Rhythm Ace seems to have hit the dangerous success of simply not coming back with any style. Because For Your Ears Only demands reactions much like Elastica's ridiculously delayed The Menace: "It took them this long to sound -- the same?" Sure, one shouldn't expect a purposefully silly big beat act to get all proto-serious and blow all conventions out the studio, but at the same time, one would hope for at least a change of the jokes. This is why one gets the bloopy "beww-weeerrrrs" of a song like "Madam Your Carriage Awaits," more cartoon waves of "Summer Song Blue," and too much workmanlike beat-whimsy of "Theme From 'Gutbuster.'" These songs are neatly traced copies of BRA's debut work and they fail to -- at the very least -- take such redundancy up a notch. It's also odd that there still remains the "why didn't they make a whole album like this?" spree of the last two or three tracks on the album. "Do the Christmas Rush" has a dreamy drum backdrop, deftly mixing absurdity with emotion so well that it's almost ballad-like, where "Kenny Beats (Part One)" flickers with vigor, and the closing "How'd I Do Dat???" is just such splendid dancefloor stupidity that it hints at what the album should be like: funny yet challenging. Sadly, they are also still too little and too late. You see, at reunions, while a gloomy goth might irritate you with his/her self-indulgent pessimism, or the chin-stroker in the corner might talk about "socio-economical fallacies," there are few things less desired than a lampshade-wearing, Groucho Marx-mustached drunkard overstaying his welcome by pounding you over the head with a novelty hammer. Yes, unfortunately, here For Your Ears Only simply shows a band telling their jokes just one time too many. [There is also a version that includes bonus tracks.] ~ Dean Carlson, All Music Guide [-] Collapse