In case you haven't heard, comedy albums are big business again. As such, The Rutland Isles will probably be a huge hit; between his years on Monty Python's Flying Circus and his work with ersatz Beatle-types The Rutles, Eric Idle's credentials ought to be above reproach.

Then again, we're talking about a man whose post-Python work hasn't exactly distinguished him as a leading comedy talent. For every Rutles, there's a Nuns on the Run, a Splitting Heirs or -- shudder -- a regular stint on Suddenly Susan.

The Rutland Isles is structured as a travelogue -- an "award-seeking" documentary -- in which Idle portrays Nigel Spasm, a naturalist who is exploring the titular lands. It's familiar territory for Idle; he played numerous investigative journalists and documentary hosts in Python skits, and his droning, nasal voice is well suited to the material. Unfortunately, this isn't a three-minute skit. Idle uses his Rutland Isles as a framework, tying together a broad and disparate mix of silly skits and "funny" (note the quotes) songs. If all of the songs were as funny as, say, "Every Sperm is Sacred" -- or even three-quarters as funny -- we'd be fine. They're not, though; the rhymes are obvious, the jokes predictable, and there's a lamentable lack of really fiendishly clever bits. For example, on the Island of Paranoia -- get this -- everyone is really paranoid, and a mustachioed dictator named General Gucci rules with an iron fist (and hides in the closet 'cos, well, he's paranoid too). The national anthem is "Whoops, Look Out Behind You". There's a national holiday called "Mugger's Day". Paranoia's chief export is "Pre-Chewed Food" -- a sketch that plays out like a third-generation copy of a Python bit.

It would be unreasonable to expect Idle to produce Python-style material twenty years after the fact, but that's clearly what he's trying to do here -- and in all fairness, when he succeeds it's quite magical. "Analology", in which Spasm interviews a scientist who studies animal bottoms, kicks off a brilliant sequence that begins with a discussion of gay animals and ends with suspect geography and a blatant Douglas Adams ripoff in "West Pole"; it's seven-odd minutes of absurdist humor that easily recalls the lighting-fast plot shifts and huge laughs of classic Python. Likewise, once Idle leaves Paranoia and visits "The Overly Friendly Isles", the humor kicks up a notch, even though it's almost entirely sex jokes and silly wordplay (which should tell you how odious some of the Paranoia stuff is).

Your first time through the leaner material, you'll probably wonder if Idle is setting up some sort of massive meta-joke; after all, this is the same Eric Idle who wrote the brilliant sci-fi meta-comedy novel The Road to Mars, and he's clearly capable of vast, multi-leveled humor when the mood strikes him. Perhaps the mood never struck him. If The Rutland Isles is part of a larger joke, it may be at the listener's expense.