From the opening guitar scream of the angst-filled "Preacher's Kid," you might get the impression that Johnny Q. Public and their Extra Ordinary is simply grunge as usual. Not that it would be a bad thing; "Preacher's Kid" is an extraordinary song in its own right, about the plight of an emotionally neglected p.k., with the heart-wrenching words compounding the feeling of helpless loneliness ("does Jesus love me, daddy? ... does anyone love me?"). That track alone would be worth the price of admission. But JQP works on a larger canvass than the latest trend, drawing from many different resources - reminding one of the territory carved out by Pearl Jam and Undercover (especially on Forum). JQP's musical smarts is best highlighted on their remakes of the literate classics "Reader's Digest" from Larry Norman and "Gotta Serve Somebody" from Bob Dylan. The former is reinvented in wacky zydeco fashion, the latter as a cool, bluesy, acoustic number. That they can update "Reader's Digest" (proving just how far ahead of his time Norman was) shows that there is an intelligence at work here, too, and not just a random sampling of their parents' record collection. Yeah, there's a lot of rock 'n' roll here, too ... it's just a smarter hybrid than most. Not every track is sterling, but all of them are solid: Extra Ordinary is a debut that shows Johnny Q. Public to be anything but ordinary.
Other coverage for this album
The Lighthouse December 1995Reviewed by Robert BermanYou've got to admire Johnny Q. Public. When a new band has the bravado to name their debut album Extra*Ordinary, you might think they're raising expectations a little higher than they deserve, especially when the band's picture looks more like a gang from the video arcade than the recording studio. But Johnny Q. Public delivers their goods with both energy and wit, and while the album may not…Similar sounding releases
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