Single flashback

The Pursuit Of Happiness - Two Girls In One [1990]

After impressive sales of TPOH’s debut Love Junk and the gruelling tour that followed, Moe Berg had to get writing. Their label Chrysalis wanted a follow-up and wanted it now.

Todd Rundgren was back twiddling the knobs, and after four months of writing, the group returned to the studio. You think the writing was done quickly? The entire project was laid town in just under three weeks!

The sound was a little different, though still recognizable as TPOH - with crunchy guitars and three-part harmonies. Lyrically we see Berg back to his horny and anxious best, maybe even more so than on Love Junk.

At the time of recording the lineup was:

Moe Berg [vocals, guitar], Kris Abbott [guitar, vocals] Leslie Stanwyck [vocals], Johnny Sinclair [bass], and Dave Gilby [drums].

While Abbott and Gilby remain band mainstays, Sinclair and Stanwyck started their own thing - Wild Strawberries - after recording wrapped. This new duo stacked a bunch of chart hits during the 90s.

As for the One Sided Story project, it went on to Gold sales. Not quite the success of the debut. Following the album cycle the band would experience multiple label switches and started to tread water saleswise.

Two Girls In One - peaked #30, 1990

Sometimes a song is a two-and-a-half minute sonic assault that leaves you wondering what just happened, but sure that you want more.

Such is Two Girls In One, a maelstrom of Berg’s sardonic wit, a killer rhythm section, chonky guitar work, and heavenly bg’s from the girls to complement Moe’s growl.

Well, she's never been hungry, she's never been poor
But when you tell her what it's like she seems to know a little more
Yelling through the bathroom door 'bout how to liberate the masses
While she's putting on her lipstick and curling her false eyelashes

I’m pretty sure I dated this girl in the early 90s…

Food - did not chart

The lead track is another brief, but powerful little track.

It may be a metaphor for sex.

New Language - peaked #42, 1990

This one is more anxious than horny, and just a titch slower. I’ve always admired Berg’s lyrics, and herein lies one of my faves.

I know it's been said that talk is cheap
But we know the power it really has
Must it be rigid and so benign
Can't it be free and efficacious

Seems this partner is making Moe feel insecure with her million dollar vocabulary.

I’m pretty sure I was in this relationship in the early 90s, too. Except I was the one with the perfectly cromulent lingo.

It’s been almost 20 years since we had new TPOH music. The group still does a handful of tour dates every year and Moe has also been playing with 90s CanCon supergroup Trans-Canada Highwaymen alongside Chris Murphy of Sloan, Craig Northey from Odds, and Steven Page formerly of Barenaked Ladies.

Here’s Berg from that night in March 2024.