Richard Cheese

“The Sunny Side of the Moon: The Best of Richard Cheese” (Surfdog Records)

Compare to: Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Weird Al

REVIEW: 3.5 / 5

In short: Richard Cheese takes a curse-word-laden walk down memory lane, presumably to a smoky lounge where he sings Nirvana’s “Rape Me” with disturbing enthusiasm.

After five albums, it’s safe to say lounge lizard Richard Cheese has established himself as the undisputed king of cocktail covers.

His latest release, “The Sunny Side of the Moon: The Best of Richard Cheese,” looks back on this success with a suave, debonair, six-martini-buzzed encore.

“Sunny Side of the Moon” is not recommended for the faint of ear, however. The album wears the coveted explicit lyrics label because eight of the album’s 18 tracks make use of vocabulary not exactly native to the lounge genre.

For the rest of us, listening to Cheese shamelessly belt out filthy lyrics from Slipknot’s “People = Shit” and Ying Yang Twins’ “Badd” is half the fun.

Cheese manages to be so upbeat about each song that one has to wonder if too many complimentary rum drinks have deafened him to what he’s singing.

Cheeseheads won’t find much new here. There are a few new recordings of past songs, but mostly “Sunny Side” gives us more of what we have already heard.

That said, this album is well worth giving a try. The songs are definitely catchy and sometimes an easier listen than their originals.

– Kevin Stillman