‘Sorry, Try Again’
by Hussalonia
Buffalo, N.Y., 2007

“Sorry, Try Again” was one of two RPM entries from Jesse Mank, a.k.a. Hussalonia, in 2007 (“Instant Winner” being the other). In it, he cleverly captures timely news events with catchy songs and contagious beats. Mank plays an impressive range of instruments. The album opens with a little ukulele tune, “Send on the Professor,” before moving into “The Cartoon Always Wins,” a fun, poppy piece about the “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” terrorist scare in Boston, interlaced with hysterically outdated dialog about rock music and homosexuality. Britney Spears had just started showing signs of cracking when the 2007 RPM Challenge began, and Hussalonia’s version of events, “Who Will Chronicle My Descent into Madness?” is a sardonic number, with lyrics about Britney’s lack of underwear, composure and hair. “Former child celebrity / the hairdresser refused, worried that she might sue / Electric clippers / No career at all / She did it herself, with a tear in her eye.” While Britney’s public breakdown is sad, Mank makes it so much fun. And in keeping with blonde celebrities who were a mess, Anna Nicole Smith’s passing gets a mention in “Death of a Socialite,” a spoken-word piece backed by jazzy, industrial sounds. It’s like Mank is a demented carnival news announcer. But the best song on the album may be “Sweet Lucifer,” a hysterically funny hip-hop piece about the devil. “Satan cover me with your blood / Come and take my soul / Oh, Prince of Darkness / You’re my inspiration.” All of the songs are intricate and mixed amazingly well, heavily-layered with instruments, backup singers and bits of dialog from old public service announcements and news and radio shows. Between this and his other effort, it’s hard to imagine Mank slept a wink in February 2007. The world needs Hussalonia to make an album every month and tell it how it is in an enjoyable fashion that we can dance to.