It's revealing that the title of this CD is an anagram of former Eggs member Beaujon's name. The songwriting and particularly the lyrics here reveal a similar sort of whimsical, slightly self-indulgent wit. "Andy" explores the peculiar pain of finding that your ex-lover's new beau shares your first name ("I know my chagrin is criminal / But I keep tripping over another man's syllables"), while "Angry Canadians" is another entry in the oddly persistent trope of Canada As Enemy (cf. the Michael Moore/John Candy film Canadian Bacon for one example) - although Beaujon seems to think Canada would be pretty justified in hating Americans, comparing its feelings to those of Hawaiians who "reserve hatred for tourists / who say, 'Have you ever been over to the United States?'" Much of the music sounds rather like Ween if they weren't such annoying, smirky smart-asses and had a more focused song sense. "Truer than the Wheel" features cheesy synths and drum machines, geeky falsetto, and witty/dorky lyrics that are half-cliche ("higher than the kite") and half off-kilter, Beck-like techno-hardware surrealism ("I've got levels of zoom that I just can't reach"; "I don't have the bandwidth to miss you girl"). A Raw-Boned June is an apt title as well. The surface of the music is sunny, summery, whimsically sentimental, but underlying this is a raw, cynical, even bitter streak, as expressed in the envy of "FFV in NYC" ("Your grandpa made his fortune / selling silicone implants / and medicine for profit / and faulty contraceptives"), the "People Who Died" sequel "The Twist of Separation," or the snarl of "Dots per Square Inch," which begins "Manhattan eats you like a lobster." Nothing earth-shattering, but satisfying in its low-key, quirky songcraft.

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