Johnny Q Public -- Extra Ordinary

8/10

Rock music has not been the primary form of musical communication for quite some time. Even if one can pick up a rock station signal on their radio, that station is most likely playing the lowest common denominator inbred descendants of grunge music. Ironically, the only decent rock band that can even get a song on the charts is (the great) Foo Fighters.
What happened?
Rock music used to be cool. If some corporation wanted to make their product appear cool, they would back up its commercial up with a rock band, and put that rock band on the can. Those days are long gone.
Personally, I have to admit, I took those days for granted. So much good rock music existed in the mid-90's, I never would have guessed the genre would go out of style. Lame.
Johnny Q Public's 1995 debut, Extra Ordinary, is most definitely one of those albums I took for granted.  This debut essentially shows this band could do anything. Need some catchy, but hard-rocking singles? "Preacher's Kid" and "Body Be." Need to slow it down a bit, without losing any of your cool factor? "As I Pray," "Know," or "Big Top" will do the trick. By the way, nice strings, "Big Top." Need to show you can keep up with the punk rock kids? "Why." Zydeco? Just cover Larry Norman's "Reader's Digest." Piano jazz? Wait, piano jazz? Yes, an album closing Bob Dylan cover that makes you think Johnny Q Public actually wrote it. Need a laugh? "Women of Zion" (aka "Bald Women") That kind of diversity is hard to find these days, but over thirteen tracks, Johnny Q Public made it sound easy. AND THEY ROCKED OUT THE WHOLE TIME!
The crazy thing is, and this really hurts...
there were more awesome rock bands in just the Christian rock scene Johnny Q Public was involved in than there are in any scene today. Everyone either broke up like Johnny Q Public did after their second (and soon to be reviewed here album)...or they started making folk or bluegrass music.
I'd rather they just broke up.
Thanks for the music, Johnny.
Oh, and a final note: MTV actually played this video. They played videos. Rock videos.

1995 Gotee Records
1. Preacher's Kid 3:59
2. Body Be 3:54
3. Black Ice 3:52
4. As I Pray 3:23
5. Know 4:54
6. Women of Zion 2:50
7. Reader's Digest 4:48
8. Secret Trees 3:40
9. Violet 2:57
10. Big Top 2:50
11. Why 3:06
12. Scream 5:50
13. Serve Somebody 6:51