Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, Strangers from the Universe (side A)

The Thinking Fellers somehow managed to make a more accessible album that still maintained all of their weirdness. 1994's Strangers from the Universe doesn't really sound like an attempted sell-out, though the songs are more consistently catchy and reference pop-music a lot more. There are a few home recorded collage-y pieces, but a lot less than on earlier albums (Mother of All Saints, from only 2 years earlier, was a crazily diverse double-LP). The weirdness of TFUL albums is really memorable, and I'm surprised/impressed by how well the pop songs have aged. Greg Freeman's engineering is slightly primitive but not to the extent of TFUL's nominally lo-fi peers.