| Cover: | Contents Dislodged During Shipment.jpg |
| Contents Dislodged During Shipment | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Tin Huey |
| Recorded: | Warner Bros. Recording Studios, North Hollywood, California |
| Genre: | Art rock |
| Label: | Warner Bros. |
| Producer: | Paul Wexler |
| Prev Title: | Breakfast With The Hueys |
| Prev Year: | 1978 |
| Next Title: | English Kids |
| Next Year: | 1980 |
Contents Dislodged During Shipment is an album by American rock band Tin Huey, released in 1979 by Warner Bros. Records. Most of it was written by the band's frontman, Chris Butler. Even though their cover of the Monkees' "I'm a Believer" was a minor hit, Contents Dislodged During Shipment was a commercial failure and Warner Bros. dropped the band in early 1980.
The album's title came from a pizza box Harvey Gold saw during the planning of the album that was labeled with the title as a warning. Gold decided the warning described what the band meant.[1]
The album sold poorly. Following the release, Tin Huey and Warner Bros. Records negotiated a separation.
Reviewing in (1981), Robert Christgau wrote: "They get arch at times, both lyrically [...] and in rhythm changes and instrumental breaks that betray an art-rock heritage. But like Pere Ubu, these Akron boys make art-rock that rocks, with chops you can enjoy for all the music's sake. And if their humor is collegiate, I'm a sophomore." Trouser Press said that "their blend of blues, jazz and progressive rock is hilariously unique, offering up a warped vision of Middle America."[2]
Writing for The New York Times in 1979, John Rockwell commented that the album "lacks the sharp, rhythmic impetus of both Devo and Talking Heads, the sort of structurally spare bands that would appear to be its most immediate inspirations", continuing that "the record still has merit, and the band's direct linkage of the pulse of rock with the drive of industrial‐age machinery [...] is especially striking."[3]