Cereal Killers by Too Much Joy

Cereal Killers, the third album from Scarsdale, New York wiseacres Too Much Joy, came out on Giant Records in 1991 with Paul Fox producing, and it's power pop for kids who did their homework and then made fun of it. The lineup was the one that had started the band in the early '80s: Tim Quirk singing, Jay Blumenfield on guitar and vocals, Sandy Smallens on bass and vocals, and Tommy Vinton on drums. Even the name comes with a punchline. They began as the Rave, then took a phrase Quirk had spotted after his first mushroom trip.

Fox gives them a clean, punchy sound, and the band crams it with hooks and smart-aleck titles that tell you plenty before the needle drops: "Long Haired Guys From England", "Susquehanna Hat Company", "King of Beers", "William Holden Caulfield". "Crush Story" is the one alternative radio took to heart, and it has hung around the countdowns for years, with "Nothing On My Mind" riding along further down the lists.

Critics liked it at the time, and PopMatters was still speaking well of it in a 2006 look back. It turned out to be the peak. Too Much Joy made more studio albums, starting with Mutiny, but none caught on the way this one did, and in 1997 they called a hiatus, complaining that the business side of music had squeezed the fun out of playing it.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.