The Crash Test Dummies crafted witty verses alongside folk-infused melodies that appealed directly to prosperous college attendees and young professionals throughout the 1990s. Their debut long-player achieved multi-platinum status inside Canada while attracting only a modest cult audience beyond its borders. Producer Jerry Harrison, formerly of Talking Heads, supplied crisp and radio-suitable touches that propelled the follow-up God Shuffled His Feet (1993) to substantial success across the United States and subsequently throughout Europe. The album’s lead track “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm” climbed to worldwide Top Ten status and turned the group into a minor phenomenon thanks to its deliberately oddball words and frontman Brad Roberts’s resonant baritone. A Worm’s Life arrived in 1996, after which the band resurfaced three years later with Give Yourself a Hand, an album on which Roberts split singing duties with Ellen Reid.
In fall 2000 Roberts issued the solo set Crash Test Dude, a program of acoustic reinterpretations of earlier Crash Test Dummies material plus assorted covers. Around the same period he endured a severe automobile accident that nearly cost him an arm. Seven months afterward he rejoined the Crash Test Dummies orbit to deliver I Don’t Care That You Don’t Mind, a fresh collection of songs composed in collaboration with lobster fishermen and musicians he encountered while recovering. Solo projects from other members surfaced in late 2001 and early 2002, including Ellen Reid’s Cinderellen and Mitch Dorge’s As Trees Walking, after which the outfit increasingly functioned as a Brad Roberts vehicle rather than a conventional group. A reduced trio of Reid, Roberts, and original bassist Dan Roberts unveiled the holiday recording Jingle All the Way near the end of 2002, although restricted distribution kept copies scarce. The album was re-released in late 2003 together with Puss ’n’ Boots, a new collection that incorporated contributions from Reid and Dan Roberts into what had originally been conceived as a Brad Roberts solo effort. The same core lineup favored a leaner acoustic approach on 2004’s Songs of the Unforgiven, then shifted toward a more orchestral palette for Oooh La-La! in 2010.
