God Shuffled His Feet - Crash Test Dummies > Reviews > Satan Lives Here

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Outstanding
Value for Money

Advantages:	Whimsical lyrics
Disadvantages:	Whimsical lyrics don't always appeal

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

"Cause then, this kid named Scott Bell
Got to keep his tonsils in a jar for show-and-tell
But when he went to bring them
His mom had thrown them out in the garbage
He couldn't quite explain it
She wouldn't let him keep them..."

Your every day song. It's about love usually isn't it. Or about death and destruction in some form or another. Sooner or later, some alt.country artist is going to come up with something about September 11 and make a fortune trading mawkish sentiment about something we'd really rather not think about too much, thank you.
If there was a god, I'd be thanking him/her/it for people like Andy Partridge of XTC and Brad Roberts. Right we all know XTC. Don't we. (If you don't, don't tell - it'll spoil the op, especially this bit). Who's the other geezer?

Drift back to May 1994. What were you doing? I was relishing the thought of some enforced quality time because I was to be made redundant at the end of the year. Remember the song about the kid who was in a car crash and his hair turned white and the other one whose plight was that his parents shook and lurched in church that was around at the time? "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" it was called and was a global hit. Brad Roberts is the bloke with the unfeasibly deep voice who both wrote and sang it. The band? Crash Test Dummies.

They came largely unannounced out of the heaving rock and roll cauldron that is Winnipeg, somewhere in British Canada in the late 80s and the album this track is taken from was their second, "God Shuffled His Feet". The first one was "The Ghosts That Haunt Me" in 1991 and was fairly well received; "God" sold millions. Rightly so, too. It's quite possibly one of the best collections of quirky, witty and eclectic pop ever produced. The XTC comparison isn't made lightly; Brad Roberts really ought to have been born English; he's definitely from the same school that spawned Partridge and he's right up there as one of the best pop/rock songwriters this country has ever produced, alongside Ray Davies and Difford and Tilbrook from Squeeze. I discounted Lennon and Macca because well, their subjects on the whole, apart from the odd one or two dalliances with walruses and Blackburn, were pretty mainstream. Nicely dealt with but did Lennon ever get the word "phalange", meaning finger, into a song about having an x-ray? ("Here I Stand Before Me"). None of the above ever managed to get so many little diamonds onto one album at once.

I never bought it when it first came out, I had a tape from a friend and it lived in the car for years and then I saw it in the library ex-stock for £1 a couple of years ago. It comes out every now and again when I want to be shaken by its infectious whimsy and gets played to death. Then it goes away and something'll happen like "Afternoons and Coffeespoons" will get played on what used to be called GLR and out it will come again.
That track, like most of the others is largely autobiographical and refers to Roberts' battle with asthma and the inevitibilities of ageing. "Someday I'll have a disappearing hairline/Someday I'll wear pyjamas in the daytime". It's also infectiously catchy with one of those little bass figures somewhere near the end which, if you play a bit, you always listen out for and wonder if it's things like that which mean you'll always be noodling away on your guitar in your bedroom and not out on stage because you'd never have thought to put that bit there.

No, whimsy abounds. Sometimes it touches a chord; reminds you of things you'd rather not remember. Such as when a track appears to be conventional such as "Swimming In Your Ocean", all lush layered synth intro (as are a lot of the intros) beckoning a first line which promises something a little bit risque, it manages to uncover little hometruths which everyone I'm sure will identify with; even metaphorically, "When I'm sampling from your bosom/Sometimes I suffer from distractions like/why does God cause things like tornados and trainwrecks?". Stop pointing, are you so perfect then? Mind you, excuses are offered - basically along the lines of "It's your fault, you smell so good, I drifted off for a bit".

The style is intelligent pop with a nod to folkier roots. No instrument dominates and apart from Ben Darvill's mouth organ and mandolins, it's a pretty normal combo. Some tracks such as "I Think I'll Disappear Now", are a bit more slavish in their influences; that one could indeed be XTC at first listen. The melodies are all well rendered with some nice harmonies and there is much use made of Ellen Reid's backing in multi-tracked mode.
There are no heavy powerchords, booming drums and thumping basslines; this album doesn't strut like a priapic teenager, it's a mature adult in the throes of a second, slightly more restrained but still inquisitive youth.

Lists:

1 - God Shuffled His Feet
2 - Afternoons and Coffeespoons
3 - Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm
4 - In The Days Of The Caveman
5 - Swimming In Your Ocean
6 - Here I Stand Before Me
7 - I Think I'll Disappear Now
8 - How Does A Duck Know?
9 - When I Go Out With Artists
10 - The Psychic
11 - Two Knights And Maidens
12 - Untitled

Brad Roberts - Vocals, guitars,piano
Ellen Reid - Backing vocals, keyboards, piano and accordian
Ben Darvill - Mandolin, harmonicas
Dan Roberts - Bass and synth bass
Michel Dorge - Drums and percussion

Oh, I almost forgot. You won't find those lyrics at the top of the page, on the album. They are the alternative third verse lyrics Roberts sometimes sings to "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" at live shows. Yep, been caught out on that one. Went to see them in November 1994 at the Royal Albert Hall, everyone merrily singing along and he threw the curve ball; mumble mumble...