Top 102 Albums. No 69
Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes
I was inspired to select this by its selection over at The Vinyl Villain's as part of his Top 50. This was a huge album in the circles I moved in. It seemed that everybody had it and the songs were huge crowd pleasers at student discos.
The band were a kind of skeletal country folk punk, so danceable as to be an inspiration for Gnarls Barkley - who cover Gone Daddy Gone from this album. Think the Velvet Underground playing Hank Williams Ramblin' Man, on the viagra of puberty. But the icing on the cake of this musical stew (Who the f*** puts icing on a stew? Listen, just listen and you'll hear) were the anguished vocals of Gordon Gano, son of an evangelical preacher. It was illegal for a long time to talk about Gano without mentioning this fact.
He is sort of a frenzied Wile E Coyote, shooting himself after girls on rockets of lust and frustration. Take Add it Up, which starts intensely and then ratchets it up. You wouldn't leave him with your sister. The pimple bursting frustration of it all is always leavened by laughs, though, even if they are slightly guilty laughs.
Why can't I get just one kiss?
Why can't I get just one kiss?
Believe me,
Somethings I wouldn't miss
But I look at your pants and I need a kiss.
Why can't I get just one screw?
Why can't I get just one screw?
Believe me,
I'd know what to do.
But something won't let me make love to you.
What exactly is being confessed in Confessions, in which Gano repeatedly tells us how 'lonely' he is? Has there been a crime?
And I'm so lonely, I just don't think I can take it any more
And I'm so lonely, I just don't know what to do
And I'm so lonely, feel like I'm gonna crawl away and die
And I'm so lonely, feel like I'm gonna hack it apart
Then there's Gone Daddy Gone and Please Do Not Go, suggesting that any success in finding love will soon be followed by breakup and pain.
But this is an 'up' album, full of cracking tunes. As the chorus of the 'hit' goes - "Let me go on..." and this is not a defeatist album, even if it is dark.
This passed me by at the time.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of Jonathan Richmond's darker stuff...
Trevor, we're talking Jonathan Richman here, I'm guessing? His first album will be making an appearance at some stage. A total favourite of mine.
DeleteSorry Seamus, right singer, wrong post code... my spelling/memory sucks.
Deleteanother one where I know the name of the band and the lp cover better than the music. Although listening now I recognise some tracks from down the indie disco!
ReplyDeleteI think they may have been bigger in Dublin than the UK, like the Go-Betweens.
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