Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too

Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too
Studio album by New Radicals
Released	October 20, 1998
Recorded	1997-1998[1]
Genre	Alternative rock, pop rock
Length	54:21
Label	MCA
Producer	Gregg Alexander
Singles from Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too
"You Get What You Give" Released: November 10, 1998 "Someday We'll Know" Released: May 9, 1999

Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too is the only album by the New Radicals, released in late 1998 by MCA Records. Two singles were released off it in 1998 and 1999, "You Get What You Give" and "Someday We'll Know".

The album reached #41 on the Billboard 200^[2] and achieved Platinum status (1,000,000 copies sold) on October 14, 1999 in the United States. On the UK Albums Chart, the album reached a peak of #10.^[3]

Overview

The New Radicals' lead singer, Gregg Alexander, released two albums, Michigan Rain (1989) and Intoxifornication (1992), before signing with MCA Records in 1997 and allegedly receiving an $600,000 advance for Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too.^[4] While the album was credited to New Radicals, many critics considered it more of a Gregg Alexander album,^[5] as he wrote and produced all songs (only the first two singles were co-written with other artists), played several instruments on it and is basically the only constant member of the band (save the possible exception of Danielle Brisebois).

The drums on the album's title track were sampled from the XTC song 'All of a Sudden' (from their English Settlement album). According to XTC's songwriter Andy Partridge, "the sample was used without permission" and the band and its record company eventually received £70,000 in compensation for its use.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[6]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[7]
Entertainment Weekly	A−[8]
Los Angeles Times	[9]
NME	6/10[10]
Q	[11]
Rolling Stone	[5]
The Village Voice	A−[12]

The sound of Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too has often been compared to a wide range of atypical influences for a modern pop-rock album, such as Todd Rundgren, World Party, Hall & Oates and the early work of Prince and Mick Jagger from The Rolling Stones. And while even some unfavorable critics had to admit that—musically—the album, with its upbeat pop-rock and influences of funk and soul, was a "well-crafted project"^[13] and one of "the more promising releases of late 1998",^[6] others found that the record was "a contradictory mash-up of polemic, white funk, loved-up yelping and nasty AOR guitar solos that wallops pop music into genuinely heartstopping new shapes for a bit...And then freefalls like a shot duck."^[10]

The album's lyrics, with Alexander complaining about the commercialisation of Western society, media and religion, also divided critics. While some found that Alexander's social criticism and observations "would sound clichéd if they weren't so insightful and articulated with such uninhibited truth",^[14] others deemed these attacks "shallow posturing" and "empty social pronouncements".^[13]

Track listing

All songs written by Gregg Alexander, except where noted.

1. "Mother We Just Can't Get Enough" – 5:46
2. "You Get What You Give" (Alexander, Richard Nowels) – 5:02
3. "I Hope I Didn't Just Give Away the Ending" – 6:37
4. "I Don't Wanna Die Anymore" – 4:16
5. "Jehovah Made This Whole Joint for You" – 4:11
6. "Someday We'll Know" (Alexander, Danielle Brisebois, Debra Holland) – 3:39
7. "Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too" (Alexander, Andy Partridge) – 5:21
8. "In Need of a Miracle" – 3:43
9. "Gotta Stay High" – 3:06
10. "Technicolor Lover" – 3:42
11. "Flowers" – 3:52
12. "Crying Like a Church on Monday" – 5:02

Two additional tracks were recorded during the sessions and released as B Sides, these are:

"To Think I Thought" (Bonus track on the Japanese version of the album, and also on You Get What You Give CD single) "The Decency League" (On Someday We'll Know CD single.)

In addition to this a solo song released by Alexander in 2003 "A Love Like That" is supposedly an outtake because some of its lyrics feature in the booklet for the album. Alexander has never officially commented on this as he has purposefully avoided interviews for years.

Alternate mixes of single tracks were also released on singles - You Get What You Give (Radio Edit) on its parent single, Someday We'll Know (Instrumental) on some pressings of its parent single, and Mother We Just Can't Get Enough (Radio Edit) on its parent single (which was never made available for sale officially due to the band's split).

The Japanese release of the album is listed as ブレインウォッシュ (Romaji: Bureinwosshu, or "Brainwash") on its spine.

Credits

• Alessandro Alessandroni – strings
• Gregg Alexander – vocals, acoustic and electric guitar, synthesizer, drums, bass
• Rusty Anderson – guitar
• Tal Bergman – drums
• Danielle Brisebois – background vocals, piano
• Paul Bushnell – bass
• Lenny Castro – percussion
• Paolo Degregorio – synthesizer, guitar
• Gary Fergusson – drums
• Josh Freese – drums
• Paul Gordon – piano
• Michael James – electric guitar, mixing
• Stuart Johnson – drums
• Mitch Kaplan – piano
• Matt Laug – drums
• Lance Morrison – bass
• Rick Nowels (listed as Richard Knowels) – piano
• Phil Parlapiano – organ
• Greg Phillinganes – piano
• John Pierce – bass
• Richie Podler – percussion
• Juliet Prater – percussion
• Dan Rothchild – bass

References

External links

• MaybeYou've Been Brainwashed lyrics at unofficial New Radicals forum
• NewRadicals.Us. The unofficial NR forum covering New Radicals, Gregg Alexander and Danielle Brisebois.