One Hit Wonder or Not? New Radicals’ Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too

One Hit Wonder or Not? New Radicals’ Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too

So here, it is, the second review of our One Hit Wonders round, this time listening to New Radicals’ Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too. If you haven’t listened to/read about why we picked it, check that out first.

The album was released October 16, 1998, and is essentially an album by lead singer, Gregg Alexander, who is the only person to play on all the album’s tracks. He enlisted a swath of session musicians (28) to play instruments while recording, really making this an album of hired guns. The very successful You Get What You Give charted high on most Top 40 lists around the world, then the band broke up in 1999. A second single, Someday We’ll Know, was released shortly after the band called it quits and the rest is history.

Here are a few things we learned:

• The album is decent – not great – not terrible.

• Gregg isn’t a great singer – being slightly out of tune on some songs.

• It feels like a collection of songs rather than an album.

• He did go on to write quite a number of big hits in later years.

• Perhaps worth a listen, but not a landmark in music.

Scott C @ The Sonic Collective