God Shuffled His Feet - Crash Test Dummies (1993)

A recommendation from my best friend, Tom

In the early 90s, this space suddenly opened up in the popular music industry for brainy pop rock that would have been stuck in college radio obscurity only a few years before.

CTD were a beneficiary of this new market landscape.

The instrumentation is pretty standard for the time. The singer’s bass register is distinctive but they otherwise aren’t musically exceptional. They are definitely catchy, though.

It’s really hard to make genuinely likable music that’s funny and heartfelt without sounding jokey or corny. CTD do exactly that. It all winds up sounding so effortless and charming that it was really fun to listen to again. I don’t think I ever owned this CD, but I knew so many people who did that I recognize most of the record. That’s how ubiquitous it was, and it deserved to be.

Tracks I Liked:

God Shuffled His Feet - hot take: this is one of the best songs of the 90s that wasn’t a massive generational hit. Adrian Belew on guitar, which I didn’t know until I read the credits.

Afternoons & Coffeespoons - speaking of guests: I’d have sworn that Blues Traveler’s John Popper is the one taking 12 bars on harmonica here, but the credits say it’s a CTD band member.

How Does A Duck Know? - An interesting discussion of Teleology, in a stoned-freshman-who’s-pretty-sure-he’s-gonna-be-a-philosophy-major kinda way.