As I Got Hit By A Car There Was A Message For Me

John Henry

   Constantly changing their sound, in 1994 TMBG went for a full band sound with their most hard rocking album, John Henry.  Employing Brian Doherty at drums, Tony Maimone at bass, and plenty of trumpets and trombones, John Henry sounds like a revival of ska.   However, there is so much more to this album than just a ska sound.  Subliminal is the terrific polka punk song with the cool backwards music at the end.  Then there is the church choir-like song O, Do Not Forsake Me sung in a five part harmony.   The insane No One Knows My Plan is ska at its finest.  The song Window is about social anxieties or being trapped in a zoo, either way it sounds as if it is being song by some kind of monster.  There are plenty of heavy rockers on this album like the ode to Alice Cooper Why Must I Be Sad, the distorted and hard Stomp Box, and the phasing enhanced A Self Called Nowhere. The biggest "hits" off of this album were Snail Shell, Subliminal, and Meet James Ensor.  My personal favorite song is the weird Window.

My Rating For this Album is: A-

The Track Listing for John Henry:

1. Subliminal
2. Snail Shell
3. Sleeping In The Flowers
4. Unrealted Thing
5. AKA Driver
6. I Should Be Allowed To Think
7. Extra Savoir Faire
8. Why Must I Be Sad
9. Spy
10. O, Do Not Forsake Me
11. No One Knows My Plan
12. Dirt Bike
13. Destination Moon
14. A Self Called Nowhere
15. Meet James Ensor
16. Thermostat
17. Window
18. Out Of Jail
19. Stomp Box
20. The End Of The Tour