Give Yourself a Hand

Give Yourself a Hand is the fourth album by the Crash Test Dummies, released in 1999 through ViK. Records. It is their final album for BMG. The album spawned a quirky hit "Keep a Lid on Things". The Times review of the album described it as "the best music of their career...an album of rare wit and vitality."

Background

For their third album A Worm's Life, Crash Test Dummies were given a lot of creative freedom, thanks to the success of God Shuffled His Feet. However, the album was considered a disappointment and, the band's label, BMG pressured the band into immediately writing a follow-up. During the initial song-writing process, the band wrote and recorded 35 demos, all of which were rejected by BMG.^[1] The demos from these sessions would be shelved until 2011, when a selection of them were released on the compilation album Demo-litions.

In 1998, the band would then proceed to write and record the album that became Give Yourself a Hand. At the time, Brad Roberts had moved to Harlem and was greatly inspired by the urban music he heard in the area. As a result, he began writing an album that was full of soul and hip-hop beats, including Roberts singing in falsetto for the first time. The sound of the album can also be attributed to the contributions from co-writer/producer Greg Wells.^[2]

The band's keyboardist Ellen Reid is featured singing lead vocals on several tracks, including the album's second single "Get You in the Morning".

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Brad Roberts & Greg Wells except as noted.

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Keep a Lid on Things"		2:45
2.	"A Cigarette Is All You Get"		2:27
3.	"Just Chillin'"		3:32
4.	"I Want to Par-tay!"		2:29
5.	"Give Yourself a Hand"		3:00
6.	"Get You in the Morning"		2:57
7.	"Pissed With Me"		3:09
8.	"Just Shoot Me, Baby"		3:34
9.	"A Little Something"	Ellen Reid, Roberts, Wells	4:36
10.	"I Love Your Goo"		3:31
11.	"Aching to Sneeze"		3:23
12.	"Playing Dead"		3:15

Personnel

Brad Roberts – lead vocals, guitars
Ellen Reid – back-up vocals, vocals on Just Chillin, Get You in The Morning, and A Little Something, keyboards
Benjamin Darvill – harmonica, guitar,
Dan Roberts – bass guitars
Mitch Dorge – drums, percussion, digital stuff
David K - piano on Playing Dead
David Piltch - acoustic bass on Just Chillin

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	^[3]
Entertainment Weekly	C−^[4]

The album received mixed reviews. Allmusic writer Paul Pearson gave the album 3 out of 5 stars and states that Give Yourself a Hand redefines the Dummies sound with lightly applied techno strokes, not far off from Everything but the Girl's classic Walking Wounded. Some textures here are stunning, with electric piano flourishes and hip-hop drumbeat samples that sound tunefully great. The Dummies exhibit an unexpected knack for drum'n'bass shadings in "Pissed with Me" and "A Little Something." Unfortunately, the beauty of the surroundings can't compensate for Roberts' singularly strange lyrical talents." However, he goes on to state that "the songs sung by Ellen Reid fare much better, especially the beautiful "A Little Something," which at least gives voice to vulnerability."^[3]

External links

Give Yourself a Hand at MusicBrainz (list of releases)
Brad Roberts 1999 Interview on YouTube
Ellen Reid 1999 Interview on YouTube

References

↑ "Phillyist Interviews... Brad Roberts of Crash Test Dummies". Phillyist. 2010.
↑ "Crash Test Dummies goes hip-hop on next album". Jam Music.
1 2 Pearson, Paul. "Crash Test Dummies: Give Yourself a Hand > Review". Allmusic. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
↑ Brunner, Rob (26 March 1999). "Give Yourself a Hand Review". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 29 July 2012.

Crash Test Dummies

Brad Roberts Ellen Reid Dan Roberts Benjamin Darvill Mitch Dorge

Demo Tapes	Original Recipe Demo Tape 2

Studio albums	The Ghosts That Haunt Me God Shuffled His Feet A Worm's Life Give Yourself a Hand I Don't Care That You Don't Mind Jingle All the Way Puss 'n' Boots Songs of the Unforgiven Oooh La La!

EPs	The Cape Breton Lobster Bash Series

Compilations	The Best of Crash Test Dummies Demo-litions

Live Albums	Crash Test Dude (Brad Roberts solo)

Singles	"Superman's Song" "The Ghosts That Haunt Me" "Androgynous" "The First Noel" "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" "Swimming in Your Ocean" "Afternoons & Coffeespoons" "God Shuffled His Feet" "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead" "He Liked to Feel It" "My Own Sunrise" "My Enemies" "Keep a Lid on Things" "Get You in the Morning" "Give Yourself a Hand" "Every Morning" "On and On" "The Day We Never Met" "White Christmas" "I'm the Man" "Flying Feeling" "The Unforgiven Ones" "And So Will Always Be" "And It's Beautiful" "Now You See Her" "Promised Land"

Videos	Symptomology of a Rock Band: The Case of Crash Test Dummies Crash Test Dude

Discography

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, August 10, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.