Nasty [Extended Edition]

In the spirit of those old "party albums" -- cheaply made standup comedy records that featured raunchy humor -- this Fuel release is light on liner notes and the few that are included are, for the most part, wrong. First off, the track list goes 30 deep but the actual CD is divided into nine tracks, seven of those being short and the remaining two coming in around the 20-minute mark, as if they were side one and side two of one of Foxx's own "party albums." Then there's the odd editing, or maybe it's just the source material skipping or unraveling, but all these flaws add character and charm to material that was never meant to be packaged in any classy manner, even if there is jazzy piano accompaniment on some tracks. Hearing Foxx drop racial slurs and all sorts of slang for the female anatomy as someone tinkles the ivories transfers this listener to a different place and time -- probably Vegas in the late `50s to mid-'60s -- and if you want dated, there's a naughty Lyndon B. Johnson meets Carl Stokes joke that will knock your socks off. Better still is the way Foxx slays a heckler, but like so much of Nasty, it lives up to the title and can't be quoted here. Cheap thrills no matter what the price, this is for nostalgia buffs with a sleazy side. ~ David Jeffries