Album: Tenacious D

Nobody ever got rich overestimating the sense of humour of American youth. Although the one joke on Tenacious D's 2002 debut was the chasm between the duo's minimal talent and their fanciful self-mythologising, it still managed to sell some 700,000 copies, and paved the way for the movie for which this serves as the soundtrack. The Pick Of Destiny offers yet another round of self-aggrandising epic pastiche, in which the theme of songs such as "POD", "Classico" and "Master Exploder" is the necessity to "fuckin' rock", not in itself a thigh-slapping satire of the barndoor-sized target provided by heavy metal. The spoof protest number "Government Totally Sucks", meanwhile, is almost as lame as the kneejerk platitudes it parodies. It's not that Americans don't understand irony, it's that they use it like a blunt instrument, bludgeoning where understatement would be more effective. A tedious, titter-free experience.

DOWNLOAD THIS: 'Car Chase City', 'Beelzeboss (The Final Showdown)'