Review: Inessa Frantowski, Help Me Help Me

“WHO WANTS CHIPS?” Inessa Frantowski roars like a carb-bestowing Oprah in the opening moments of Help Me Help Me. But the triumph quickly descends into awkwardness as she asks her live audience to return their gifts. “I’ve always had a dream about throwing chips out at a crowd when I start a show,” she explains. “But it is, in fact, an album recording, and the chips are already quite noisy.”

It’s the perfect start to an album where clever and slightly off kilter reflection after reflection leads to even more unexpected punchlines and payoffs. In just under forty minutes, Frantowski deftly weaves through a typical day of non-stop television watching in the 90s, how a desire to be part of a marine show at Canada’s Wonderland can shape you for life, the aesthetic appeal of humans vs animals, crafting elaborate backstories for your neighbours, bad storytelling, and the real purpose of self help books before bringing it all back to the chips.

Help Me Help Me is smart, sharp, a bit strange, capable of provoking more than a few completely caught off guard out loud laughs, and mercifully devoid of any crunching or chewing sounds.

Help Me Help Me was released in 2019 on Howl & Roar Records.
Listen to it here