God Shuffled His Feet

I'm sorry, I try and give every album I generate a fair shake, but I'm so fatigued from bad alt rock, especially from Canada, that's it's getting increasingly hard to do so.

Crash Test Dummy's not-so-secret weapon is their lead singer, Brad Roberts, who has a distinctive deep bass voice and a yarling vocal style similar to what Eddie Vedder was doing with Pearl Jam at the time. While Roberts' vocals were a big draw to many of the band's fans, I cannot stand them.

When this initially generated my first thought was that the Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm one-hit wonder band surely couldn't have any good songs while that was their breakout hit, and unfortunately I was right. Their music, like all other Canadian alt rock bands from the 90s, follows in the footsteps of The Tragically Hip, although this time with more of a folksy and jangly style. Roberts' pseudo-deep lyrics get annoying very quickly and last throughout the entire runtime of the album, I actually enjoyed Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm the most purely because the humming chorus is a change from the daft lyrics in the rest of the song and album.

The most surprising thing for me is that there's so many people in the reviews claiming that this is one of their favourite albums. Am I missing something that they're hearing? Probably, but it's not for me.

Should it be on the list: No

Top 3 songs: God Shuffled His Feet, Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm, Untitled

Somehow it feels correct that Canada created by Bare Naked Ladies and Crash Test Dummies. How have I never heard them before? The voice is so perfect, the storytelling so straightforward and relatable. It's not doing anything I've never heard before, but it's doing it so evocatively. Gives me Blues Travelers in the best way.

Unohdettavaa ysärirockia. en myöskään ymmärrä lyriikoita. 2/5.

Yeah, I'm sorry, but the vocals make this whole album feel like a parody of itself, and the lyrics aren't doing much to help. Maybe it's some of that Gen X sarcasm at work, but then you know there are better albums for that. Such as the Divine Comedy, which this user gave a one star. So, I'm not really sure what this album is appealing to, but it ain't me.

There was a lot of stuff I’d missed in the 90s that I knew I was ignoring at the time. Crash Test Dummies is a weird one because I only heard about them last year, but everyone was talking like this was a big deal band at the time. Had to be there, apparently

Once there was this guy who took a trip to Singapore and brought along his spray paint, and when he finally came back, he had cane marks all over his bottom. He said that it was from when the warden whacked it so hard.

And once there was this girl who swore that one day she would be a figure skating champion, and when she finally made it, she saw some other girl who was better. And so she hired some guy to club her in the kneecap.

And then there was this guy who made his wife so mad one night that she cut off his weiner, and when he finally came to, he found that Mr Happy was missing. He couldn't quite explain it. It'd always just been there.

One huge hit, one other good song, and a bunch of (surprisingly good) filler.

Yeah really enjoyed this, bit of a blast from the past, bur really good alt rock album now added back to my frequent rotation.