Released: 1992
Tracks: Your Quimby Dollars at Work; I Can’t Stop; Uglytown; Open Up!; Dhen Tin; Spearmint Pup; Fencing; Always Man; My Immense Superiority Over the Silverfish; Eno and the Actor; The Car Song; Heaven Likes You/Apple Pie; Backstage With Wilson Phillips; Here is What I Dreamed; Here is Why; Performing Miracles; Spoon Guy; And That’s Why It’s Called Spunk; Johnny One-Note/The Exciting New Toothpaste From Mars; Day of the Cow 1; Snowcow; Day of the Cow 2; We’re Rockin’ All Night With the Tangy Flavor of Cheddar; Rosemary Girl; Lightnin’ Roy
Best track: Uhhh, Cheddar? Quimby? Uglytown? Always Man? Dhen Tin? Pick one of those, it changes every time I hear this thing.
Track to skip: not recommended
From the first 40 seconds of this album you have a good idea what to expect: out-of-this-world musicianship and lotsa humor. That’s a good portion of the album, but it’s totally ignoring Keneally’s songwriting, which is quite impressive.
This album was the first thing of Keneally’s that I heard and it really caught my attention. On his website there’s a little 2 minute preview of the albums’ 25 tracks. It blew me away. The music seemed very familiar to me. I hadn’t ever heard a note of his music, but when I heard it I felt like I knew this music, like I was really familiar with it deep down in my soul. This is only the second time this phenomenon has happened, and the first time was with Dah-veed’s music. A pretty rare thing. What can I say, it just connected with me.
It took me a while to buy this one, I got it after Dancing and Wooden Smoke and at the same time as Sluggo. As an album, it’s not as good as Sluggo, which isn’t as good as Dancing. However, this thing is DAMN impressive. How does a person have all these excellent ideas hiding in his brain for so long before releasing it as his debut album? It kills me that a person can be this creative.
Hat is very chaotic; Keneally rarely stays in one place for very long. This is good or bad depending on your tolerance for those kind of things. I like it. It does show a sign of immaturity, but it doesn’t take away from the immense creativity Keneally has and just lets loose on this piece of plastic. And don’t be dismayed by the 25 songs, most are around 3-4 minutes and 9 of them are under 2 minutes long. Only Lightnin’ Roy is excessive, clocking in at 13 minutes.
Hat is not the most amazing album ever made, nor is it Keneally’s best album. It is very good, a lot of fun, and something to pull out after you’ve listened to Dancing a few thousand times, and Sluggo a few hundred and you still want more Keneally. Trust me, it happens. It won’t stay in your CD player, but it’ll always put a big ol’ smile on your face.
Rating: 83
Addendum 11/27/02: This review has always bugged me. The grade of 83 never really sat well with me and over the months since I wrote it I always felt I gave a wrong grade. I re-listened to it again last night (in reviewer mode, not in fun sing-along mode) and decided that Hat does not deserve an 83. It’s better than that. It still doesn’t qualify as ‘A’ material, but that’s OK. It was his first attempt. For most of the 70 odd minutes, this album is very entertaining. Also, it’s a great debut, and very impressive. So, new (and correct) grade for this is:
Rating: 88
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