Violent Femmes

I’m at a 5. Just a bit higher, really.

I just love how this album feels. A more experienced songwriter would overthink their teenage experience; they’d try to use metaphors for thoughts they never truly had & they’d try to ideate a past with more pain than they’re willing to admit. A more experienced composer would try to evoke those feelings with a bit more panache; one that elevates their younger hormones as something beautiful to be honored despite the flaws, and probably do a little too much in trying to capture that false mythos. This album’s got none of that experience & polish behind it, and its ability to capture the raw attitudes of a teenager (in part from writing these as teenagers) is so remarkably unique for this era. I’m amazed this is 1983, because it feels like a natural precursor to the angstier tones of the ‘90s, especially with how much they just kinda attack the guitar on a lot of these tracks.

Obviously, there’s a lot of cynicism here, and that might shatter the album for some people. I think it’s a fair criticism, but you can’t deny that it makes for decently compelling storytelling, even if it’s a bit edgy / defeatist by modern standards. It’s also a horny album; most of these tracks are practically puberty-centered depression about not being able to keep his girl or not getting sex. Once again: a fair criticism, but this album is self-deprecating enough that it’s clear it’s a bit exaggerated, as most teenage complaints truly are. High school feels big until it doesn’t & life seen solely through that scope feels like it’s a universe wide until you expand it out further. These tracks carry a gravitas that simultaneously know how ridiculous it all seems in hindsight & yet feels as important as it did back then, and that’s something that very few albums can capture with the same sincerity as this one.

The only reason I’m not at a 10 is because I think the back half gets just a little repetitive – specifically, “To the Kill” & “Gone Daddy Gone”. They’re still both good tracks, but they do feel different enough that it shakes the flow of the album in a way that doesn’t feel quite as airtight as the first 7 tracks did. “Good Feeling” is a great closer though. Hence, I’m a bit higher than a 5. I feel like a moron for having heard of Violent Femmes before now but never actually choosing to listen to them (and discovering that they are in fact, not femmes). It’s a great album, it more than deserves to be on the list, and I think I need to run back those first 7 tracks a few more times. You should definitely hear this before you die.

Wasn't aware of the Violent Femmes before, but I digged the album.

I loved this album when I was a freshman in college. Today, I learned that I have matured quite a bit since freshman year…

At under thirty minutes this barely qualifies as a full album by conventional standards, which makes it all the more remarkable that it still manages to feel uneven. The opening one-two of “Blister in the Sun” and the promise it establishes set expectations the back half can’t consistently meet — a familiar problem, but more pronounced here than most because the gap between the peaks and the valleys is genuinely wide.

The peaks are real. “Blister in the Sun” is transcendent in the specific way that opening tracks can be — the kind of song that resets what you think a guitar and a voice can do together in under three minutes. “Add It Up” is the other anchor, the song that works at maximum volume late at night when everyone is sufficiently committed to the moment, which is its own category of achievement. These are songs that have appeared in movies, TV shows, and club sets for forty years for good reason.

Gordon Gano’s voice is the variable that determines everything else. When the material is strong enough to carry it the adenoidal intensity is part of what makes the record feel like nothing else. When the material isn’t — and “Please Do Not Go” is the clearest example — it tips from distinctive into wearing, which is the honest ceiling on what the record can do front to back.

A three with two genuinely great songs inside it. Worth catching their festival set at Bourbon and Beyond for exactly those two songs. A standalone show in Roanoke is a different commitment, and this listen settles that question cleanly.

Weer iemand die niet kan en niet wil zingen. Vanaf de eerste woorden, wordt alle energie uit mij getrokken. Triest, heel triest, dat dit in deze lijst staat. Meer woorden wil ik hier niet aan vuil maken.

Listening to 𝘝𝘪𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘍𝘦𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘴, it’s easy to hear the roots of what would later be called alternative rock. The album doesn’t fit comfortably into any one genre. There are traces of folk, bits of rock & roll, punk energy, and a quirky acoustic sound that feels entirely its own.

What I find most interesting is how unusual the album still sounds. Even decades later, it doesn’t really resemble what most people think of as alternative rock. The stripped-down instrumentation and nervous energy give it a personality that sets it apart from many of its contemporaries.

I enjoy the album’s originality, but I’m not sure I enjoy the album itself as much. I can hear why it became influential, yet I never feel completely won over by it. In the end, I admire it more than I love it.

excellent - I have not listened in a while

Listened half of this and I have to admit I expected way more for some reason, because I kept seeing this album on the lists of best alternative albums on the 80s. And while this does sound ahead of it's time, not sure if it stands the test of time that good, it just sounds average to me, maybe 3 stars at best?

Extremely surprised to learn this came out in the 80s. Quite influential I guess. It cool.

I knew 2 songs here but the rest were pretty good too.

I felt like I should like this but it just never got interesting

Jamais écouté avant.

La traduction en musique des angoisses libidineuses de l'adolescence, unique sur la forme (du punk, oui mais... acoustique) et étonnamment moderne dans son approche et ses compositions, qui ont l'air d'avoir 10 ans d'avance. Bien sûr, l'album est tout sauf parfait, les textes sont parfois gênants, les guitares et la production tournent parfois à l'amateurisme (contrairement à la basse, omniprésente, et tant mieux), la batterie sonne comme une boîte de conserve rouillée, mais ces imperfections font toute l'identité du projet, en plus d'en servir très largement le propos. Et de toutes façons, la perfection, c'est ennuyeux, non ?

Top : Add It Up
Flop : Please Do Not Go

I'm conflicted. The alternative punk vibes are kind of cool, but his voice is ridiculously annoying. Also, every time I found myself enjoying a song in the slightest, I couldn't help but feel that it was a little forced. I think I most enjoyed "To The Kill", but the two iconic hits were NOT doing anything for me. In fact, I pretty much hated them. I'm not sure what you're all hearing. It's fine but not THAT good.

Also, why was that one song about him wanting to get a girl drunk so he could have sex with her? Rapey much?

Energetic acoustic punk ?
How was this not a 90s album .

I think I used to get Violent Femmes and Jane's Addiction confused in my head. I never really liked either, tbh. At least what I heard on the radio in the 90s. Anyway, I already knew five of the ten songs on the original album from 1983(!). And they're from Milwaukee??

I mean it’s a debut that opened with Blister in the Sub! It might have literally invented a genre.

Blister in The Sun is a banger, as a young 18 yr old me and my girlfriend (now wife) would go crazy in the dance floor as this song blared out of the speakers. What a shame the rest of the album does not hit the same heights. Deserves a 2 but I’ll give 3 for nostalgia

Kind of wild that almost all the classic Violent Femmes songs are on their debut album. It's good.

Played with all the attitude of the fiercest punks, The Violent Femmes play one acoustic banger after another.

If it just had Blister in the Sun and Gone Daddy Gone it'd be a classic, but the other songs aren't that far behind.

Of all the albums I've got so far, this is the one I most want to put in a time capsule and send to my teenage self. It doesn't feel as impactful to me now as it probably would have then, but I like these songs and love the acoustic bass sound. Very ahead of its time for 1983.