The Cherry Orchard is the retro orchestral pop equivalent of the Insane Clown Posse. Like ICP's oeuvre, the Cherry Orchard's music is not meant to bear any relationship to the real world. The Cherry Orchard's music is a cartoon, amplifying a genre's most grotesque clichés to a level we're supposed to recognize as dumb, escapist fun. What the Cherry Orchard does to the genre in question-- heavily arranged, dipshit '60s pop-- is much more caricature than homage, but a caricature devoid of irony or commentary.

Though this music shows outward signs of competence, the listener becomes utterly bored by the walkthrough of only the most obvious signifiers. And though The World is Such a Groovy Place improves on the band's last outing, The Start of Our Affair (a musical hot potato I've been unable to foist on even the shadiest used record dealer), a 2.0 is pretty much the max for what the Cherry Orchard is trying to do here, and it's not even close to being worth your time.

The improvements on this record are in the strength of the arrangements and the sound quality. Main Orchard man Jason Smith may not have much in the way of songwriting or singing chops, but he knows how to achieve an accurate sonic facsimile of an early Sonny & Cher session. The drums have that Hal Blaine thud, the layers of horns and acoustic guitars are plenty sweet, and the background "ba-ba-bas" are recorded and well mixed. So there are the pluses.

The problems are more numerous. First, there's the album title. The Butthole Surfers might have been able to get away with it 15 years ago, maybe. How are we supposed to take it when Smith delivers this stuff straight? Is the world really a groovy place? And if not, what good does the sentiment do anybody? Then there are the rest of the words. On what level are we supposed to appreciate a song called "Bubblegum Popgirl?" Before you answer, keep in mind that the chorus actually goes, "Space age/ Bubblegum Popgirl/ Sixties beatnik with lips like honey." Is it supposed to be cute or something? I suppose it's possible, but still, how long could the appeal of "Bubblegum Popgirl" possibly last? Not long enough to make it through the song, I assure you.

With lyrics like that smacking stupidly upside your head, it's hard to focus on the music. But trust me, that's no great loss. Though some of these tunes strain toward catchiness, they generally go where you expect them to go, and whatever melodic mediocrity is achieved is soiled by Smith's whiny, thin voice. The sound can, at times, reasonably be called "pretty," but so can the flower print contact paper that lines my girlfriend's dresser drawers. I'm sorry, it sucks to be so down on a band that probably sold 5,000 copies of its last album, but I just can't imagine why anyone would want to listen to the Cherry Orchard.

-Mark Richard-San