A sort of concept album/sort of smug revue,
2776 is the funny brainchild of the Levinson Brothers and Rob Kutner, all three of them successful comedy writers who skew more toward the MSNBC than the Fox News side of things. Their musical comedy concept album doubles as a time capsule from the future, a future when America's excess, ego, ennui, and exporting of reality television have come back to haunt the U.S., and karma's a bitch. On the country's 1000th birthday, a robot has come down from space and threatens to blow the country to bits unless the President -- played by SNL veteran
Will Forte -- can prove it's worth saving, and thus, the listener travels along as the Commander in Chief pleads his case with bad examples and dubious achievements. It's a fantastic excuse to allow a cavalcade of comedy and musical stars cover a wide range of topics, from
Reggie Watts and
Right Said Fred rapping about the ins and outs of time machines ("Journey to Anywhen") to
Yo La Tengo, Ira Glass, and
Eugene Mirman all musing about the true meaning of Christmas: stuff ("Toymageddon"). Casting is excellent (
Patton Oswalt is perfect as a
Ken Nordine-sized word jazz artist on "God Blessed America," while the annoying virus that won't go away on "I'm Cured" is
Aimee Mann) and scattered about are some fantastic songs that could easily be pulled out of context for their respective artists' greatest hits (like
Neko Case and
Kelly Hogan's "These Aren't the Droids" or
Ed Helms' "Bunker Bunker, Burning Love"). A unique and often hilarious effort with the added benefit of being good for the soul, as the money goes to the education nonprofit OneKid OneWorld. ~ David Jeffries