The primary time I ever heard ‘Blister within the Solar’ was on the radio whereas my dad was driving me to high school. I used to be 14 and it was like nothing I’d ever heard earlier than.
That infectious opening guitar riff, drums that acquired your arms itching to clap, the whiny refrain simply begging you to sing alongside. The whole lot about it spoke deeply to all that teenage angst I had pent up inside, desperately in search of an outlet.
Let me go onnnnnnnn… like a blister within the solar!
And with that stomach-churning imagery, Violent Femmes helped usher in my teenage dirtbag period.
Over time I discovered that Violent Femmes have been one thing of a cultural phenomenon throughout america, a kind of sluggish burn sort of bands whose notoriety was constructed via the sharing of mixtapes and home occasion playlists.
One of the vital outstanding issues in regards to the people punk trio is how what was basically a highschool storage band from Milwaukee managed to go away their grubby fingerprints throughout popular culture.
Their stripped down sound influenced bands just like the Pixies and The Smiths. Gnarls Barkley even coated their track 'Gone Daddy Gone' in 2006. Their songs additionally made it to the display – featured in cult classics like Actuality Bites, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and The Crow.
At the moment the band’s 1983 self-titled LP is hailed as one of many best debut albums of all time (even Rolling Stone put it on their prime 100). A sleeper hit, the document took 5 years to go gold and one other 4 years to go platinum – all earlier than ever hitting the Billboard Prime 200.
There may be not a single observe that’s skippable – from the unusually uplifting track about offing your self to spite others 'Kiss Off' (with a killer bass riff from Brian Ritchie) to the straightforward and candy ballad 'Good Feeling' (in Gordon Gano’s attribute whine) to the desperately attractive 'Add It Up' (its frantic tempo held up by Victor DeLorenzo’s drums). Your entire tracklist brims with the unhealthy perspective of a misunderstood teenager and you recognize what? I STILL LOVE IT.
It’s the proper album to take heed to on a street journey, drumming on the steering wheel and wailing on the prime of your lungs out the rolled-down window.
However wait, you ask, isn’t this a column about underrated albums? Okay, you bought me. Whereas I do imagine that Violent Femmes (the band) deserve extra recognition in mainstream circles, it’s laborious to say 'Violent Femmes' (the album) is underrated at this level.
I nonetheless wish to point out it, although, as a result of should you’ve by no means heard of them, I’d advocate beginning there – it’s acquired a sure magical spark that none of their subsequent albums ever managed to breed.
But when we’re speaking about albums that ought to be given a second likelihood, let’s discuss their second album, which has remained one of the vital misunderstood data of their discography.
I’ll be the primary to confess that 'Hallowed Floor,' which was launched only a yr after the Violent Femmes’ debut LP, was not my favorite after I found it. The non secular undertones have been off-putting (there’s a track referred to as 'Jesus Strolling On the Water') and the darker tone was a far-cry from the raucous enjoyable of their first album.
However right here I'm, in my 30s, giving it one other shot. So, was I fallacious all these years in the past?
If we’re being trustworthy, it'll by no means attain the identical icon standing of the self-titled LP and among the tracks have aged like milk ('Black Women' is especially problematic, and don’t come at me with the “anti-political correctness anthem” argument).
However general, 'Hallowed Floor' is a significantly better album than most individuals give it credit score for.
Musically, it’s extra various than 'Violent Femmes,' making it really feel much less cohesive on the outset however extra fascinating the extra you take heed to it. The Femmes discover an enormous vary of kinds, from nation to people to gospel to blues, bringing in new devices just like the banjo, piano, saxophone and marimba.
The tone additionally feels decidedly extra grown up than its predecessor. Regardless that Gano wrote the songs across the similar time, ‘Hallowed Floor’ addresses darker themes like poverty, apocalypse, faith and homicide. I'll say, nevertheless, it’s additionally decidedly much less enjoyable to sing alongside to. Can’t have all of it, I suppose.
The opening observe, 'Nation Dying Track,' is likely one of the grimmest songs within the band’s repertoire, a first-person account of a farmer within the American Civil Battle who loses his thoughts and throws his daughter down a nicely. Affected by guilt, he later kills himself. Primarily based on a real story, the homicide ballad is a chilling gothic snapshot held collectively by Gano’s folksy storytelling and a jangly banjo, an actual gem that’s moved from the sophomore droop and into the Femmes’ Finest-Of.
Different standout tracks for me embody 'By no means Inform,' an developed model of 'To The Kill' from the self-titled LP, which Gano charismatically carries for over 7 minutes. Additionally the moody title observe, which begins with a spoken-word Bible quote (Gano’s father was a Baptist minister) earlier than delving right into a contemplation of nuclear holocaust.
My private favorite is 'Candy Distress Blues,' a light-weight and twangy people punk ditty that reminds the listener to not dwell on the previous. It’s a a lot wanted feel-good reprieve in what seems to be a curler coaster of an album.
For a band like Violent Femmes, which for 40 years has been seen as one thing of a one-trick pony or the musical equal of “Catcher within the Rye”, ‘Hallowed Floor’ is a huge center finger to the music business and listeners of music typically. It’s a defiant testomony to the band’s refusal to do what’s anticipated of them.
Bassist Brian Ritchie put it greatest in a 2014 interview with The Guardian: “The Femmes have at all times been in regards to the music. Gordon by no means cared about being well-known. The important thing to longevity is to doggedly pursue your concepts to their conclusion.”
And you may say what you need about ‘Hallowed Floor’ however it's nothing if not the Femmes’ wildest concepts doggedly pursued to their conclusion. It might not match the cult standing that ‘Violent Femmes’ has ascended to, nevertheless it stands the take a look at of time in a manner that its predecessor maybe doesn't.