Family Guy - Live in Vegas

By Joshua O'Connell
Posted Thursday, May 5, 2005

Unless you've been living under a rock the past couple of months, it's been hard to notice that Family Guy's back. The show debuted to ratings that beat the Simpsons a week ago, and the merchandising machine that's putting the show back into the collective minds of America hasn't stopped. New special edition DVD sets were released, and ads have been all over.

But one thing that slipped by my radar until last week was the recent release of "Family Guy: Live in Vegas," a CD with the principal actors of the show singing different tunes in what plays like an hour-long show recorded in Vegas. To quote Peter Griffin, "It's freaking sweet."

The CD takes great pains to make it sound like a live show. Realistic-sounding applause and laughter are added in to give it a real feel. Guest stars are brought on to add to the star power, such as Jason Alexander. The album was recorded with a 55-piece orchestra that sounds extremely good here. The audio even has a slide echo to it, like it's recorded right off the stage.

But don't be fooled on how well this is produced. It's high-class production, but the main event, however, are the songs themselves, and they're just as you'd expect from Family Guy writers. There's some really humorous songs here, and they dip into vulgarity and randomness frequently, such as on the songs "All Cartoons are Fucking Dicks" (which Jason Alexander sings to, with a voice that's surprisingly good). A medley of 80s TV show songs is provided, along with a couple of songs that are more interesting ("The Last Time I Saw Paris" is touching when sung, hilarious during the spoken parts).

What is most impressive is the singing ability of the voices behind Brian and Stewie's parts. In fact, when they sing together, it's incredibly good. They're not mere voices; they carry the CD. The songs, while sometimes low-brow, is exactly what you'd expect from the Family Guy team, and they're all very funny. This is worth picking up; chalk it up as yet another home run from Seth McFarlane and the gang.

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