One Sided Story

After the fairly hard-rocking Love Junk, Moe Berg and company utilized Todd Rundgren's production abilities to create a textured — and well, Rundren-esque — pop record. So while One Sided Story isn't a major departure from its predecessor, it does show the band toning down their sound considerably and opting for more diverse arrangements and tempos. The problem is that the band's best moments are their singles — and they do have some very good singles — but their strong point is rarely the quality of their albums. One Sided Story probably stands as the band's most flawed and confused album, showing that following the success of Love Junk they probably had no idea where to go next. And sonically, Todd Rundgren's production does little to help the album — it sounds dated and dry — and One Sided Story also marked a writing slump for Moe Berg. The Pursuit of Happiness' lyrics were always sexually frustrated, but here Berg's frustration often becomes too awkward or even frightening, such as on "The One Thing." Given all of the obvious confusion, it's no surprise that One Sided Story sold only half as well as its predecessor. Yet despite the disc's glaring flaws, TPOH buried some of their best pop singles here, including the rocker "Two Girls in One," the strangely beautiful (though overproduced) power ballad "All I Want," and "Food," featuring what is probably Berg's most sexually frustrated lyric that isn't cringe-inducing. Still, all of the best moments from the album were rescued on 2000's best-of compilation, Sex & Food, making this album the least-essential disc that TPOH ever produced.