[Mull's] mind has more dark corners than a chimney nook. His heart belongs to dada….

He satirises the crassness of rock culture with light, deft touches, never savagely, so that absurdities are as delightful as they're never less than truth….

He's the Good Soldier Schweik, and, what's more important, the best musical satirist since Spike Jones; better, in fact. In "Straight Talk About The Blues," for instance, he turns on its head both the notion of young white snots playing the blues and, by the authenticity of his vocal takeoff, those wrinkled, geriatric bluesmen who're continually being "rediscovered" by the Alan Lomaxes of this subworld.

His ear for jazz nuances and styles is as accurate as his vocal parodies of Randy Newman.

Utilising this knowledge, garnishing it with nuttiness, he creates a comedy of sublime characters and silly situations that's more European than American.

Michael Watts, "Martin Mull...