Junk Puppets
Junk Puppets is the second album by the Irish alternative rock band An Emotional Fish, released in 1993. "Rain" peaked at No. 15 on "Billboard"'s Modern Rock Tracks chart. Production. The album was produced by Alan Moulder, David A. Stewart, and the band. Like "Achtung Baby", to which it was often compared, "Junk Puppets" presented a more dance-oriented sound. Critical reception. "Trouser Press" thought that the album "maps out a dramatic, kinetic surge of pointed, textured rhythmic noise-pop that is, at times, not entirely unlike the clamorous sound of U2's "Achtung Baby"." "The Washington  Post" opined: "Practitioners of the sort of eclecticism that doesn't seem to add up to much, the members of An Emotional Fish make music on their new "Junk Puppets" that ranges from electro-noisy ('Rain', 'Yeh Yeh Yeh') to conventionally bombastic (the string-laden 'Careless Child')." "The Times" deemed the album "good Celtic rock with a real kick," but acknowledged that "the bold, anthemic qualities of some numbers may not be to everyone's taste." The "Calgary Herald" determined that the band "keep the edge on an otherwise unstable amount of musical aspects ... The intense mixture works because the  songs flow naturally from beginning to end." "The Dallas Morning News" called the songs "pleasant, boring and forgettable—just the ticket for 'alternative' stations." AllMusic wrote that the band "scrounge bits of epic pop, psychedelia, funk, and electro-dance and scatter them on the display shelf in a prize fusion of guitars and technology, modern swagger and respectful acknowledgement."