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Anyone else hate Trouble At The Henhouse? - Printable Version

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Anyone else hate Trouble At The Henhouse? - Jay Z - 08-05-2004

I haven't seen this listed recently among the better ones, but I just cannot stand this album at all. There are a couple of stronger songs (Vienna, ABAC) and some okay songs, and that sinkhole that is Butts Wigglin, Apartment Song, and Coconut Cream. I just cannot believe that they saw fit to put three such stupid songs back to back to back.

I honestly don't know what happened here. I suspect that after Day For Night, they were going for something mellow, and mellow just doesn't suit them that well. Or Gordon was smoking reefer when he wrote the lyrics. There are a lot of lyrics to cringe at on this album.

- Tthip - 08-05-2004

One of my top two albums.

- kari - 08-05-2004

Of all The Hip CDs, this is my least fave. The first five songs are great, but I cannot stomach the remaining songs...

I feel guilty saying that, but...

- boot - 08-05-2004

I don't feel guilty saying it.... I'm with you, Kari....

The first 6 songs are great (although, I'm not even crazy about Don't Wake Daddy)... And then then rest...yeah, I don't even listen to them. I appreciate the grooves on Coconut Cream & Engaged, but overall, I generally just take the CD out after 700ft....

- kari - 08-05-2004

I just find the last several songs on that CD lack lyrical content (although the music itself isn't so bad)...I just don't them. And, yikes... Apartment Song, that's my least fave Hip song...ever...hands down.

- cpierson - 08-05-2004

I remember when they had the album debut on the radio back in '96. I listened, and thought "that's the Hip? It's so _dreary_." I've grown to like it more since then, but I'd say it's one of my less-favorite albums.

Gift Shop, Vienna, 700 Ft. and -- yes -- Let's Stay Engaged I liked out the door.

ABAC I still think is a little overrated, which makes me a heretic, but there you go. Good song, but not one I go out of my way to listen to. Prefer it live, for the audience interaction.

Daddy I used to hate, but have since grown to really like.

Put It Off and Sherpa are good, but coming at the end of the album like they do, it makes it feel like it ends with a slouch.

Butts Wigglin is the closest the Hip have ever come to releasing a novelty song. I don't hate it, I just find it boring.

The groove on Coconut Cream is good, but the lyrics ... well, I like the bit about the Christian circle-jerk, but mostly it's weak.

And Apartment Song? Argh. Don't get me started. If I could erase any one song from the Hip's catalog, it would be this one.

Ultimately, I think the problem with TATH is one of tone. Aside from 700 Ft., there's really nothing very up-tempo on the disc. That makes it a bit of a slog sometimes, compared with all their other work. I like it more now than eight years ago, but aside from my need to hear Gift Shop when flying in a plane, I don't really pop it in as much as any of the others. Even Music@Work.

- jay420 - 08-05-2004

Am I the only person that actually likes The Apartment Song? I've always thought that the lyrics were good, especially the last verse.

I wouldn't put Henhouse in my top 5 Hip albums, but I wouldn't put it at the bottom either (M@W is my least favourite.) I don't think I could go so far as to say that I hate any Hip song, let alone an entire album. There are songs that I'm not really into, but there aren't any that I would say that I hate.

- lampshade29 - 08-05-2004

jay420 Wrote:Am I the only person that actually likes The Apartment Song?

No way. I with you. I really like the Apartment Song. It's very cool. Oh and Let's Stay Engaged is so good. I love it.
As for Put It Off...it's one of my least favourites. I hear it's better live, but man, i just find it really boring. Cocount Cream and Butts Wigglin I could live without as well.

But I love so many songs on this album. ABAC is maybe my favourite hip song. Just for the lyrics and emotion. Man, it's killer.

- lampshade29 - 08-05-2004

jay420 Wrote:Am I the only person that actually likes The Apartment Song?

No way. I with you. I really like the Apartment Song. It's very cool. Oh and Let's Stay Engaged is so good. I love it.
As for Put It Off...it's one of my least favourites. I hear it's better live, but man, i just find it really boring. Cocount Cream and Butts Wigglin I could live without as well.

But I love so many songs on this album. ABAC is maybe my favourite hip song. Just for the lyrics and emotion. Man, it's killer.

- Canadian Sherpa - 08-05-2004

This is all blasphemy! What's wrong with you people? Yes the hip took some subtantial turns in direction with henhouse, and I remember it coming off DFN noone knew what to think.

And the one thing nobody has talked about is Sherpa!!! One of the best hip songs ever - how could you turn the album off after 6 songs?!?!

Butts Wigglin from Brain Candy (followed by Men with Brooms and Trailer Park Boys) launched the hips ongoing relationship with Canadian comedy a la George Harrison's patronage for Monty Python. In context of the movie ts a funny little tune. Probably made some good coin from it too.

Apartment Song (a brilliant literary exercise in carving a story out of inanimate objects - illuminate the obvious) and Put it Off (To prove that words could not touch beauty) are both legit hip songs that I couldn't imagine not existing.

...Gift Shop, Springtime in Vienna - We live to survive our paradoxes.
I too admit that if I HAD to weed them out this might be one of the first two or three to go, but its a great album.

- lord brazle - 08-05-2004

I happen to like all the albums. I mean, each one gets the same amount of airplay on my speakers than every other one. Some I don't get right into, like IVL or M@W, but I still play them and listen to them. I'm a junkie and I can't think of a better addiction than the Hip.

That brought a tear to my eye; so beautiful said. Cry

- grooveless touque - 08-05-2004

CS - i'm glad you brought that up because I was all set to unleash my "you're all nuts, Sherpa is one of the most amazing songs ever" spiel. Now I've said it but because it was off handed and mentioned in passing nobody will take it personally :mrgreen:

This is not one of my favourite albums because I only like the first four and last three songs, and for vastly different reasons. It's funny this should come up because I am listening to Sherpa RIGHT NOW. I think the first four songs on the album are all good songs, well-written that is, and they're all catchy...but the last three are all brilliant. I love the lyrics and Sherpa and Put It Off trukly elevate this album above just another rock album. I think they're so dark and twisted and murky, and the lyrical snatches are just brilliant.

However, my least fave thing about the album is I can never listen right the way through. The first four are awesome for sunny days, needing catchy but interesting songs. The next five are absolutely unfettered GARBAGE I can hardly ever stand. Apartment Song is OK, I like both the lyrics and the music somewhat, but coming as it does in the middle of such an atrocious pack of songs, I almost never lsten to it. It feels like three different albums, especially with the songs being "clustered" in the 3-5-4 pattern I have identified. It just doesn't hold together. Even among the songs I like, if I am in the mood for Gift Shop, I am not in the mood for Put It Off. If I am in the mood for Sherpa, I'm not in the mood for ABAC. And I'm NEVER in the mood for Butts Wigglin or Coconut Cream. What were they thinking?

Liking at least seven songs makes it hard to say it's a bad album, especially with flashes of inspiring artistry like the lyrics of Don't Wake Daddy and Sherpa, and the musical flair of Let's Stay Engaged and Gift Shop. But it just isn't a "listen-through" album like DFN.

- sherpahigh - 08-05-2004

Said it before and I'll say it again... Put it Off is THE most under rated Hip song there is. One of my favorites. By the sounds of things in this thread, TATH is a highly under rated album as well.

- Canadian Sherpa - 08-05-2004

Sherpa High,

Cheers on a great "sherpa high" picture. That's what I'm talkin about! Where is that?

- boot - 08-05-2004

And that's what's lovely about this discussion.... We'll all disagree because we're all so passionate about the music.

Because *I* think that M@W is the most underrated.