Violent Femmes

If someone had a gun to my head before I looked this album up and asked me when it was released, I would have said sometime in the 90s and would be dead right now.

Absolutely fantastic. Gordon Gano, in his creepy Lou Reed meets Ted Bundy way, Delivers a delightfuly uncomfortable experience. I nearly had an out of body experience during the xylophone solo in Gone Daddy Gone.

Before I heard this album, I would have never thought that acoustic punk was possible, but here we are, and really catchy hooky punk at that. Another plus: I can't think of another recording that better captures the sweaty, desperately uncool, paranoid, lust-ridden, powerless feeling of being a teenager, all the while making you laugh like hell. To top it off, frontman Gordon Gano and company manage to close off the album with a genuinely moving ballad, Good Feeling. There isn't a weak track on here. If I was forced to pick a favorite, I'd probably go with the big hit, Blister In The Sun, but Prove My Love and Promise are killer tracks as well. It may not be terribly ambitious, but on its own terms, this album is close to perfection.

I know this album inside  out and and just about every lyric. I’m still at Lake Simcoe with the young ones so planed ahead to sneak in a quick listen.  I decided to sing along and change some of the words. It worked. Example:  “Why can’t I get just one DUCK - must have something to do with luck. . . “ When one of the boys did a double take and gave me a look,  I explained it was a hunting song and the singer is the only guy who had yet to shoot any dinner.  Did he buy it? Hah -  He folded like a cheap suit. When people want to be negative about an album or band they often say "they play only three chords." This is often said figuratively rather than literally. If you wanted to throw this dagger at the femmes, you could make it literal if you said you could play the first three songs with only four chords: G, C, D and Em. If you throw in Bm, A and E you can also play Add it up and Prove my Love and probably some others. But I don't want to insult them. This deranged mess of Gordon Gano in his yoot is one of my favourite albums ever and is made better by all of its blemishes (including one on his forehead  on the back cover if I recall correctly). I often wonder if you have to be deranged to write such deranged music or can you simply act the part?  I'm guessing you have to be fucked up to write this shit. If you are of this view, then a scary thought is  that this was not their most deranged album. The Derangeometer on their second album easily surpasses this one.  And if may digress, neither holds a candle to Nick Cave's Murder Ballads which is possibly  the most deranged album ever. Anyway, I understand why many will rate this a 1. I really do. 

5 stars. Automatic 5 stars. Steve Belcher loaned me this tape at 7th grade camp. I was mostly listening to GNR, Metallica, Poison, etc. at the time. This was a real mindblower for me - acoustic but sounded dirtier and dangerouser than anything else I was listening to. Love it.

Know the work rules. Radiohead singing about being lonely: Aww, you’re sweet. Violent Femmes singing about being lonely: Hello, Human Resources?!

I tried. I skipped almost every song. Sounded like Tim Heidecker impersonating both Bob Dylan and Mick Jaggar at the same time. Was not impressed.

Listened to this album quite a bit in college, hadn't really listened since, and honestly prepared my middle-aged self to be annoyed by it after all this time, as can happen. Didn't happen. Still a fun (and sometimes funny) album. I think what saves it for me is they are really good musicians and still come across as original-sounding to me. Oftentimes, I lose interest fast in bands that go for irony or some other form of humor, even when I like it first time I hear it. Maybe it's like improv humor for me in that when it works in the moment, it's great for a laugh, but I don't want to go back to that moment. Anyway, whatever the thought-and-feeling-process might be, this is an album this fiftysomething square dude can still enjoy.

I’m always in awe of how ahead of its time this album is. It was released in 1983 and it sounds like everything that was happening in 1993! It’s so beautifully rebellious, hitting the airwaves at the height of the 80s neon soaked synth pop excesses. This album is boldly, defiantly alternative and raw. It’s a stunning achievement in going against the grain and I love every note if it.

Here's an absolutely and absolutely unique masterpiece. Raw and immediate, with unsophisticated recording style and (almost) no embellishment, this is probably the best expression of teenage frustration and anxiety ever recorded. it feels so real. The bare arrangements mean that the songs seem completely unfiltered. This album is so honest that it feels like a secret every time you listen to it; I can't believe they are saying what they are saying! And yet, this obviously hit a nerve with many, many people; sales estimates to date are around 3 million copies sold (and, one has to think, a handful of furtively taped copies for each disc sold). Nearly everyone of my generation (at least in the more alternative circles I moved in) can sing Add it Up, Blister on the Sun, or Gone Daddy Gone from memory at the drop of a hat. The basic recording means this never sounds old, and, interestingly, my 16 year old son has this album on his want list, so it clearly still speaks to young people. When I was an uni in 1990, my friend Kate and I skipped lectures one afternoon to go see the Femmes busking at Circular Key (filmed for the Noise on SBS). That sunny afternoon, singing along to the band, is one of my favourite live show memories. You see snippets of that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2J6d0EVEJE

Growing up in the 80s, discovering the Violent Femmes was like discovering drugs. It was a gateway to alternative music, a door that could never be closed again. A life of swapping cassette tape recordings of low bandwidth college radio stations, collecting bands like the Crucifux and the Dead Kennedys, all-age punk rock shows in the closest city smoking clove cigarettes and feeling alive and different. Good stuff.

Awesome raw energy. The sparse arrangements, exude energy and funk, and have a great deranged vocal flair. It is pretty impressive that also the unusual arrangement due survive their era and still sound entirely relevant today.

The sad thing is someone let this production occur. The vocals sound off key and lack volume and depth. The instruments seem to be done by 2nd graders who decided to pick up their parents instruments and started jamming. I keep imaging a real singer:Pink or Weekend singing these songs and amazing musicians playing the music. It would have a chance to give quality to this album. I do love the Album cover. In fact it looks like they did attempt to photograph one of the 2nd graders suggested to play an instrument. Unfortunately she is too embarrassed to look straight at the camera. Who can blame her.

TRUE 4.5 - Was much more into this album than I expected to be with only knowing "Blister in the Sun." Very cool to learn this was released in 1983. I also figured this was a early/mid 90s alternative record that was drawing on those contemporary influences but it clearly seemed more influenced by the first wave of punk and I very much fuck with that. The songwriting had a bite and wittiness that stayed sharp throughout the record, and actually made me laugh a few times. Overall really enjoyed this one and definitely will come back for another listen.

singular artifact of alternative music. fav track: good feeling

I hope you know this will go down on your permanent record... Predating the slacker movement, this album laid ground for the fuck-you complacency that kicked into high gear 10 years later. I don't think there's an album like this that's ever followed. Monumental, important and oh-sooo good... --- A personal cringy note here. When I was 12, I'd often belt out the lyrics while listening to this on my knockoff Walkman screaming "... there's nothing I can say when I'm in your thighs..." I'm pretty sure my parents loved this album too.

Holy shit I forgot how much I enjoyed this album.

One of all time best albums. A perfect mix of punk, rock and lofi. This album had a recording cost close to 0. Its their debut, and its basically just three guys looking for a cheap studio they could afford to use. They found a tiny one, went in there and recorded some songs. And here's the result. The definition of true LoFi.

A bit weird and shouty

How did this come out in 1983? It's got 1990s written all over it. Acoustic punk rock is probably the most punk punk could be, and this is a timeless classic. Everyone knows "Blister In The Sun" but there's not a bad song on here, everything has its own groove and hook like "Add It Up", "To The Kill" and "Gone Daddy Gone", and everything sounds like it was recorded in one straight shot as stripped back as everything feels. Real garage music energy.

Maybe my favorite album Of. All. Time? Like for real. It’s down to this, the White Album and REM Reckoning. Top 3.

Nothing takes you back in time like music. I recall sitting in a down stairs hall at my high school listening to this on my Walkman, thinking, "Wow, this is really good!" It's interesting how this album has grown in popularity over the years. It didn't chart until eight years after its release, but it was already certified platinum. This was classic alt back when alternative really was alternative and very much underground (especially in a rural area like where I lived -- I bet no more than 20 kids in my graduating class knew of the band.) Classic album. 5 stars.

This was a favorite of mine in my teen years of the late 90s. Brings back the feeling of freedom that came with having a car to take myself out of the suburb and into the city. Crossing the river into Cincinnati with the windows down to let in the sticky night air, on the way to go smoke clove cigarettes and drink maple coffee at the nocturnal coffeehouse. Big Hands, I know you're the one. 5

The Violent Femmes really capture a lot of the awkwardness, anger and uncertainty of being young. Musically, the songs are earthy, bare bones, and full of attitude. The lyrics are pissy and unrepentantly hormonal, with a generous dose of humor. But there are surprising moments of raw vulnerability and off-kilter charm as well. It feels like just about the most unsettlingly honest group of songs you'll ever hear. It's a pretty perfect album. Fave Songs (All songs, from most to least favorite): Blister in the Sun, Good Feeling, Gone Daddy Gone, Kiss Off, Please Do Not Go, Add It Up, Prove My Love, To the Kill, Promise, Confessions

This might be the first "alternative" album I ever heard. I thought it was the weirdest thing I had ever heard. Was this guy serious? Is he actually angry or not? I hadn't heard punk before so the attitudes and forthright emotion confused my 12 year old brain. I thought a lot about the lyrics in a way that I had never analyzed the records I liked from C+C Music Factory and Culture Club. When I was exposed to this record I also heard Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Red Hot Chili Peppers. The vocals on those records were hard to make out at times but the vocals on Violent Femmes are so clear.

How do they manage to make an acoustic guitar sound so godly orgasmic? The album cover and eery acoustic sound give off old western vibes. It's energetic, witty, and exciting. You can feel the raw emotion and turmoil of the vocalist. It's fun to sing along to most of these songs. The instrumentation is interesting (particularly their unique usage of acoustics and the xylophone), and the solos are especially creative. Every song is fantastic, even the least popular songs feel perfected to every second. This is what punk is all about, and I'm glad there were more bands besides The Replacements in the 80s fusing punk with more melodic rock styles (from a different approach of New Wave). Wish the two bonus tracks were incorporated into the album somehow, maybe with a little more polish ("Ugly" straight up sounds like 60s garage), cause "Good Feeling" is a great note to send off with.

Somehow ahead of its time and one-of-a-kind and timeless all at the same time. 1983!? A year before the previously mentioned abomination of 1984? I first heard "Blister in the Sun" in the early 90s, having no idea that it was nearly a decade old. It's one of the songs that got me into music. I mean, I'd always listened to music, but it was just whatever radio station or cassettes my parents put on. A bunch of pop radio and Madonna and Paula Abdul. So Violent Femmes was a revelation. It's a sound that somehow combines punk, surf rock, folk and country rock, alternative, 90s and 00s indie, and more all into something that is all of those and none of those and more. It is cohesive and consistent for the duration. Violent Femmes does not boast the best vocals or the cleanest playing, but it is more than the sum of its parts. Much more.

Edgy, raw energy. Acoustic musicality.

Wow. I have ways loved this record. For sure one of the best sad boi albums. It's very simple yet i think it really inspired a lot of bands after it. Will never not wanna listen to this album. The bass playing is phenomenal and while the lyrics are rather crude and sometimes borderline creepy just has so much emotion behind them. No doubt there's so problematic emotions here. Its just so raw.

It’s interesting getting this right after REM. Michael Stipe’s voice is mumbly and bland whereas Gano squeezes so much out of his, lots of highs and lows, fortissimos and pianissimos, and full of angst. It’s amazing that these three buskers could serve up such a variety of great songs and sounds with only minimal instrumentation. Not too many debut albums are better than this one.

a classic. no other energy like it. must be the guy hammering the acoustic bass.

Promise My first album rating is a debut one, that's odd. The sound signature is very organic and humble, looks like it's part of a rehearsal equipment, honestly I rather listen to instruments and records like this, the production may not be the better, but it gives a unique atmosphere for the whole project. From "Violence" I guess it's a puzzle to the listener, how about put a kind of name with "Femmes", it reminds of 10CC for example. I really appreciate the folk here with essence off the period, most likely was Murmur by R.E.M. in the same release day though. Viewing the art cover plus the content, I premiss that's a great way to start head all the entire thing, as you can see after almost 4 decades still their big deal carrying the rest of their career in the back, literally. B+

This album is way ahead of its time. It’s Indy before Indy. It’s pixies and the shins abd decemberists. It’s a mash up of the energy and grime of punk but the acoustic sensibilities and tempo of django rheinhardt. The combo of acoustic punk and the clever wordplay, lyrics and delivery make this band delightful. There are 5 of my favorite songs on this album, the rest feel like repetition or filler, sadly. If this album were 5 songs it would be a 5, but it’s not so it’s a 4.

My brother got suspended from our school for covering "Blister in the Sun" at a high school talent show. His band name was 4:19. "We're 4:19, anyone got a minute? Hueh hueh hueh". Had no idea this came out in 1983, thought for sure it was late 90s. I guess they must have been important or something, huh. The vocals sound like I'm being serenaded by a serial killer, and I'm quite smitten. Loving the acoustic bass solo in track 3. Ah there's Gordon again, ready to come flay my flesh and feed me my genitals, prepared over a nice cassoulet (but with a midwest tater tot twist). Man, so much is derivative of this sound, I really need to revisit the Violent Femmes. Does it slap? It slaps.

Feeling a little bamboozled that a band called Violent Femmes is a bunch of dudes. However, I really liked this album. Very simple, organic punk rock. There's a welcome clarity to both the vocals and the instruments that often isn't the case with punk, but the energy is still there. Really love the xylophone on "Gone Daddy Gone." I can totally hear how this became a cult classic. And when I heard "Add It Up," I recognized it immediately as a Tony Hawk song....sure enough, Underground 2. Favorite tracks: Add It Up, Blister in the Sun, Gone Daddy Gone, Prove My Love. Album art: I like this picture. Seems like a companion to that Siamese Dream cover in a way. Apparently they paid this girl's mom $100 to take a quick pic. For some presumably broke punksters, that's a great way to get an album cover. 4/5

Violent Femmes are punk/alt-rock royalty. And for good reason. Coming into this one, I had very very positive feelings for this band and this album in particular. But this project has got me listening to things that I know far more critically than when I'm listening for fun. That's why Violent Femmes only gets a 4 instead of a 5 star rating this time. While I still absolutely adore this album, and it's full of absolute killers (Blister in the Sun, Kiss Off, Add It Up, Gone Daddy Gone, Good Feeling), there are some real stinkers as well (Please Do Not Go) and the musicality is... not awesome. Many times intentionally so... but not always so intentionally so, you know? Violent Femmes, I still love you... I just can't give you full marks.

Sounds extremely out of place for it’s time. This feels like it could have come out of 90s and 2000s indie scene. Never been a big indie fan but it’s fine.

This is perfect Halloween music. Michael Jackson singing Thriller in a graveyard isn't scary. The Monster Mash isn't as gross as the title suggests. But Violent Femmes are legitimately spooky. The almost-unplugged production sounds like an old house about to collapse. The marimba is cool and haunting. But it's the singer's rat scrotum delivery and unsolicited horned up lyrics that really make this creepy. Catchy as hell and the hits are great and the little hits are too but shit like "I'm gonna get her drunk, maker her cry, get her high, touch her all over her body" and I have to assume this is just a portrait of a character that he's inhabiting very very well. Maybe under the hood, Violent Femmes are like the Catcher in the Rye of 80s music. Maybe they're just good at conveying the spirits of perverts and small devils on your shoulder. Due credit for taking punk in a folk direction. B-

After Blister In The Sun I was just annoyed by the vocals. I couldn't take a full album of that. Really thought I'd enjoy this more but it just didn't do it for me.

Unerträglich, wieder einmal. Ein „Blindes-Huhn-findet-auch-mal-ein-Korn“-Wunder (wegen 'Blister in the Sun').

Honestly, of you played this for me with no context I would have guessed this was much more recent than 1983 (positive). I like it, the sound is like early pop-punk. It's got energy, but it's tempered by the slower tracks. Some of the lyrics are absolutely deranged and at one point I was like "oh God, imagine if the incels discovered this!" But I still had fun and enjoyed the vibes.

Sounds like Lindsay Knapp’s basement back in high school while we worked on school projects together.

I really liked it. Makes me want to learn some of these songs on guitar.

When I first heard this album in the early 90s I could not believe that this album came out in the early 80s. It's a popular album but I don't know that it truly get the accolades it deserves for what it brought to the table for music. I'm sure you could name any number of albums that came out in the 80s and say that was a better album than the Violent Femmes debut but that said better album sounds like the time it came out. This eponymous album is mfing timeless.

Solid part of 90s grunge

Love this shit. Fav song was add it up.

This album had a huge influence on me in 8th grade, the year after it came out. The music, the lyrics, all of it. Hard to find a better debut album.

I still throw this one on from time to time and it instantly connects me to my awkward and angsty high school self. It’s a sing (or shout) a long classic filled with undeniable hooks and nervous energy.

The soundtrack to my 14yo soul. I was listening to second- and third-wave punk, starting to dip my toe into the earliest of earlies, NY Dolls and the Stooges and the Sex Pistols. Chad Wiggins, three years older than me and a skinheaded black-booted tattooed (big deal in Vta for a 17yo then!) god who listened to KMFDM and NIN all this wild shit I still don’t understand, told me, “You like those guys, check the Femmes out.” I did and was like Chad wtf. And he said, “Listen to it again.” I did and was still like Chad I like it but I’m not sure I’m getting it? He said, “Go tell your punk buddies you’re listening to the Femmes.” I did and they were all lol faggot. Chad said, “Why do you think they’re like that?” “I don’t know. It’s pretty punk—it just doesn’t sound like normal punk.” “It just doesn’t sound like normal,” Chad said. “Don’t you think it’s weird that these guys who call themselves punk are scared of something that sounds different?” I literally wore out the cassette. I’m so glad this band exists and that Chad told me it was okay to love them.

Not easy to sound so effortless. Love this band.

yes

Wonderful

I love it, it is so groovy, and I have so many memories of dancing Blister in The Sun. :)

Amazing songs. Great album.

I haven’t listened to this album in probably 30 years and I was surprised how good it was. Maybe because I wrote the Femmes off as haphazard. This isn’t strictly fair- this album is all very on-purpose. The lyrics are deft in a way I never previously gave credit for. And don’t get me wrong, I loved this album and listened to it a bunch back in the day. I just didn’t take it as seriously as maybe I should have.

fantastic.

What a great album. Blister in the Sun is obviously amazing, but so many of these tracks had me singing along and dancing. Absolutely loved it.

Classic album! You get the "good feeling" that this is what happens when you spend too much time busking on the streets of Milwaukee! (This is a total guess, but without looking it up, I think the Femmes did get their start by busking.) Love this high energy folk-punk weirdness. Every song is good here. Liked Songs Added: Blister In The Sun Please Do Not Go Add It Up Prove My Love Gone Daddy Gone Good Feeling Gimme The Car

Adolescent Angst: the Band

This album means a lot to me

This was more entertaining than I’d thought! Great songs and tunes on this one. Some songs sound like straight from the 50s with punky lyrics and some other do have that 90s feeling (even though this album is older)

Surprisingly great. Acoustic pop punk that must've sounded way before it's time, as it has aged really well.

What a debut album. I hadn’t really given this album a listen before and was so surprised, in a good way.

So peculiar for an album with standard instruments

Excellent album and a fun listen. Oddly enough this band comes off as a folk-punk, acoustic power trio of teenage angst, and they pull it off in style. I was sixteen when this album was released, and it fit my worldview at that time perfectly. It is still a lot of fun to jam out this one even now.

Someone called it Acoustic Punk and that's likely exactly the reason why I love this. With lyrics that are teenage frustration personified

Outstanding.

This album is absolutely timeless, as I never would have placed it in 1983. Punk, raw, alternative, and could have been released a decade or two later and fit right in. Blister In The Sun is classic, but I liked much of this album, including Gone Daddy Gone, Kiss Off, and Good Feeling. A coming of age album that is incredibly genuine.

Knew more of these songs than I expected. Loved it

Amazing, funny, and catchy indie rock that's reminiscent of 21 Pilots

What an album ❤️

My kids are going to think I'm so cool

I LOVE THIS ALBUM!!!! There no other album that sounds like, which is crazy because it is basically only vocals, hi hat, snare, acoustic guitar and bass. What is also insane is that this came in 1983. It sounds 10 years ahead of time. This album is so much fun, all the songs are so much fun to sing along too and have really great melodies and some witty lyrics. Their bass player is on another and is really what sells this album for me. The 4 track run at the start of this album is perfect and one of the strongest openings of all time. I love the harmonies in Please Do Not Go, the bridge of Kiss Off, and the main melody of Add It Up is so good. I really should try to listen to their other albums. High 5.

fantastic album. it's one I've been meaning to listen to for a long time after a lot of recommendations but I'm surprised at just how much I ended up liking it. bassist is great and the overall lyrics and vibes of every single track is on point. love it

5 stars, obviously.

There's only one way this is going to go - 5 stars, despite staggering amounts of teenage angst :)

I’ve heard of the Violent Femmes before, specifically the song “Blister in the Sun” which I consider a bop. That song happens to be the first song of their self-titled debut right here. Much like the aforementioned song, this album is filled to the brim with folk-punk tunes, where the acoustic guitars are rollicking and playful alongside well-accented percussion from Victor DeLorenzo. Gordon Gano wrote in such a manner that this album maintains a high energy throughout its runtime. The only song I didn't immediately gel with was "To the Kill", though with a second listen I came to realize that the tonal dissonance throughout song is still mildly cohesive in its structure and actually pairs well with the perverse lyrics of the narrator thinking about killing. There’s a such a twisted fun nature throughout this album, and I have no doubt in giving this one high remarks. Check it out.

Everybody needs some accoustic punk!

I cannot believe it was published in 1983, so fresh. Could be yesterday

How does such an voice match so well with the music? It's dirty, greasy, & raw. Love it.

Taking too long again, Bill!

9/10

Strong week so far. Another epically important album. Bonus points for Milwaukee’s greatest alternative-folk-nerd band.

i've already listened to this album and i absolutely adore every second of it

It was fun! Felt like a pump up album for a young bachelor going to hit up the big city

Great

This is a fantastic album. Many of the songs I had heard and are great songs that got a lot of play. A few I had heard and forgotten but are very good too. The rest are also good songs. But I never listened to a whole album. It still sounds fresh in all its simplicity. It creates a sound that is unique, direct, and conveys the emotion of adolescence. A lot of it sounds heavily influenced by Lou Reed (the impact of whom I never fully appreciated until doing many of the albums from this generator). I also hear Bowie in some songs. I've always loved the use of the xylophone on Gone Daddy Gone; there's even a xylophone solo! The bass work that runs through the album is fantastic. I read some reviews online and several mention that it is an acoustic Punk album. It never struck me as acoustic but its true. How unique is that?!

own

Acoustic punk masterpiece. This is an album that I grew up listening to basically on repeat. Every song is a banger. It’s structured so incredibly well in the sense of how you listen to it. This is easily is my top five favorite albums of all time. It’s a rollercoaster of stress, hate, late, envy and melancholy wrapped into what I think to be a almost perfect experience. 10/10

It will always amaze me that this is from the early ‘80s.

Amazing album. I got to see it performed live from beginning to end last year.

very hard to write ab cuz the charms are so obvious, ig ill just say that this Kinda makes up for the whole metallica s&m thing...from washed out alt rock uncles to jittery lecherous teenagers channeling their experiences into punky folky songs that have the distance to achieve disarming humor but the intimacy to still feel like ur seeing something very special that ur lucky to witness. more then anything, one of the most immediately catchy albums ive heard in a good while. at some point ill accept that this rly is just My Genre

Great discovery! As I usually say: Punk fears nothing! Punk is not afraid of being pop, much less making songs without guitars or with almost no distortion. On the contrary, Punk is purely attitude! And this album has that. I would like to highlight the bassist's work on this album. It's been so long since I've been so excited about the sound of an instrument. Speaking of excitement, I must have listened to this album about 4 times in a row today. I really liked it a lot and it was definitely one of the best discoveries this year! 5 stars!

A guy I knew in high school gave me a copy of this on a blank tape. It was 97 or 98 and I had no idea who the Violent Femmes were. He offered it with no context or explanation that I can recall. One listen and I was sold. I assumed they were a 90's band cause it sounded relevant to that time - weird and quirky and alternative and all that. It wasn't until a couple years later when I actually went out and bought a copy that I learned that it was released in 82. The Violent Femmes were way ahead of the their time man. Probably a 4 or 4.5 for me cause a couple songs drag a bit, but nostalgia pushes this to a 5 today.

This was great. Lots of energy, lots of punky noises, but also somehow not as loud and abrasive as a lot of other punky stuff I like. I could listen to this over and over and not get bored.

Such a great album, and so far ahead of its time!

Love this album. Without this album what would we do for the soundtracks of films that star John Cusack? Seriously though, this album was a revelation. A doorway into a secret world of all age shows done by DIY bands all over the U.S. and U.K. An indie album that showed that all of the preconceptions could be thwarted. An acoustic punk album that pointed the direction of indie rock for the next three decades. An album whose song arrangements rocked layered with truly sincere, heart wrenching, and funny lyrics that didn't require a British accent, sneer, or guitar distortion to make them seem heavy. Pocket tight rhythm section that could walk that fine line of rocking and allowing space for the wonderful melodies and harmonies of the acoustic punk to shine threw like beams of moonlight. Recorded during the summer of 1982 in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, the home of Dungeons & Dragons. You can just imagine the legendary adventuring hijinks these guys were getting up to in-between recording and playing out. Amazing that these tracks were largely written and performed by a bunch of eighteen year olds.

Excellent album

Poh, dit is wel echt peak 80s alternative rock. Quirky, speels en ongemakkelijk op een aanstekelijke manier, maar ook bij vlagen venijnig en rauw. Een template dat de jaren 90 uiteindelijk tot iconische kunst verhief. De melodieën blijven hangen als een earworm, maar het zijn vooral de momenten waar zanger Gordon Gano het meest wanhopig klinkt die de plaat de meeste shine geeft. Het voelt een beetje als de missing link tussen 70s indie acts als Modern Lovers en jaren 90 Modest Mousey bands. De drive en de energie op het album pakt je in, en je wordt hier constant aan herinnert door de explosieve opbouw in de individuele nummers. Perfecte lengte ook. En 'Add It Up' is hands down één van de betere alt rock songs ooit gemaakt. 9/10 Highlights: Blister In The Sun Add It Up Confessions Gone Daddy Gone

Godsamme wat klinkt Violent Femmes heerlijk wanhopig. Love it. Er is een mooi clubje obscure bands met wanhopige zangers, vaak ook met (slechts) één goed album. Violent Femmes is er daar 1 van (net als Neutral Milk Hotel). Ik hoor verder veel Punk, zeker in het legendarische Add It Up. Maar ook het geluid van the Pixies en the Replacements is niet ver weg. Maar wat waren de Femmes er vroeg bij. De weg vrij voor veel meer Alt-rock in de nineties. Nog één shoutout op deze verder toch steengoede plaat; acoustic punk. Toch wel een personal favourite van mij. De punk energie en wanhoop vastgelegd met een (toch wat meer verfijnde) akoestische gitaar. Violent Femmes toont zich er heer en meester in. 8,5/10 Highlights Blister in the Sun Please do not Go Add It Up Confessions