While the Pour l'Amour Des Chiens lineup includes long time Bonzos Neil Innes, Roger Ruskin Spear, Rodney Slater and 'Legs' Larry Smith, the return of Vernon Dudley Bohay-Nowell, Martin 'Sam Spoons' Ash, and Bob Kerr brings some of the elements that went missing around The Doughnut In Granny's Greenhouse back into the mix.
That's not to suggest Pour l'Amour Des Chiens amounts to Son of Gorilla. It's more the forty-years on mutant half-brother of Gorilla, with some shared DNA and a bit of different genetic material.
Much of what's on offer comes from the prolific pen of Neil Innes, starting with eleven of the album's twenty tracks as sole credits along with another three co-writes, but while it's the old school Bonzos claiming most of the spotlight, the album's highlight is Edmondson’s Beautiful People, a marvellously mean-spirited little singalong advocating the mass slaughter of anyone who's too beautiful, intelligent, glamorous or desirable so the unwashed masses can have the world to ourselves.
While Pour l'Amour Des Chiens might not be everyone's cup of tea, if you're a fan of gently eccentric English humour you might just find this worth investigating. While it lacks the Stanshall-inspired surrealism of the later Bonzos, there's something rather charming about a rendition of Tiptoe Through the Tulips featuring a percussion solo on the polyphonic flowerpots which is, apparently, anxiously watched by percussionist Sam Spoons' better half.