Strategem (album)

Strategem
Studio album by Big Head Todd and the Monsters
Released	1994
Genre	Rock
Length	47:15
Label	Giant
Big Head Todd and the Monsters chronology
Sister Sweetly (1993) Strategem (1994) Beautiful World (1997)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	link

Strategem was the fourth album by Colorado rock band Big Head Todd and the Monsters, released in 1994.^[1] It was the band's second Giant Records release, following their platinum Sister Sweetly released the year before. While the album failed to match the sales and popularity of the band's previous effort,^[2] several individual tracks were positively received by reviewers, including "Kensington Line"^[3] and "Neckbreaker".^[4] Several verses on the album were inspired by Buddhist koans.^[5]

The band recorded the album in an empty theater in Boulder, Colorado and attempted to return to a more indie music sound in the wake of their more commercial-sounding effort in "Sister Sweetly".^[6]

"Strategem" was a deliberate misspelling by the band of "stratagem", used in the album title and also found in the song title "Strategem", and in the lyrics of that song: "Here I stand by lovely strategem."^[7][8][9]

Track listing

All songs written by Todd Park Mohr

1. "Kensington Line" - 3:19
2. "Strategem" - 4:25
3. "Wearing Only Flowers" - 4:43
4. "Neckbreaker" - 3:57
5. "Magdelina" - 4:55
6. "Angel Leads Me On - 5:01
7. "In the Morning" - 3:56
8. "Candle 99" - 4:28
9. "Greyhound" - 2:56
10. "Poor Miss" - 4:25
11. "Shadowlands" - 5:10

References

1. Big Head Todd and the Monsters. "Strategem". Retrieved 5 July 2013.
2. Allmusic.com. "Strategem". Retrieved 5 July 2013.
3. Larry Flick, ed. "Single Reviews". Billboard, Dec. 3, 1994. p.79.
4. Sinclair, David. "The Critics' Choice". Billboard, Dec. 24, 1994. p.26.
5. Budnick, Dean. "Jam Bands". ECW Press. 1998. pp.28-29.
6. "Picks and Pans Reviews: Strategem". People, vol. 42, no. 23. December 5, 1994.
7. Cohen, Jason and Michael Krugman. "Hippies al Dente". Spin, Aug. 1995. p.24. "Todd misspelled the album title on purpose!"
8. Colin Larkin The Guinness encyclopedia of popular music Volume 1 1995- Page 395 "Big Head Todd And The Monsters Formed at high school in Boulder, Colorado, USA, in 1986, the band put together two albums ... Strategem (deliberately misspelled) unveiled further gritty displays of rural blues rock, particularly 'Neckbreaker' (inspired by 14th Century mystic St John Of The Cross) and 'Angel Leads Me On'. "
9. Larkin The Virgin encyclopedia of nineties music Muze UK Ltd - 2000- Page 44 "Strategem [sic] was disappointing, despite unveiling further gritty displays of rural blues rock on tracks such as 'Neckbreaker' (inspired by fourteenth-century mystic St. John Of The Cross) and 'Angel Leads Me On'. "