Violent Femmes- Add It Up

This is the Violent Femmes' second "Best Of" album (out of four!), released in 1993.

And it doesn't start well. Waiting For the Bus really irks me! Unreliable public transport is a daily annoyance for me, so I do NOT want to listen to a whiney song about it!

As everyone knows, Blister in the Sun is a fantastic drunken singalong tune. Sober listening while chin-scratching in an armchair reveals it to be pretty superficial, but magic things happen to it after a few drinks on a Saturday night! Add It Up, while less famous, has the same appeal.

Gone Daddy Gone has a very catchy groove, and uses it to good effect. Dance M.F. Dance is a one-trick pony which slightly outstays its welcome. However it is also quite infectious (until you get sick of it).

The "lo-fi" sound is part of Violent Femmes' character, however I will still have a whinge about the recording quality! Perhaps due to the stereo placement, the instruments all sound isolated from each other, so there is no sense of the band "blending" to create music together (especially when listening through headphones). However everything is crisp and the sound suits the style of the music well.

To be blunt, about 70% of this album doesn't appeal to me at all. One reason is a sense of baseless teenage angst (Gimme the Car, Black Girls, America Is). Also, the composition of many of the songs is a mess (Kiss Off, Lies, Vancouver), sounding more like a jam session than a song. I won't get on my moral soap box about the daughter-killing lyrics of Country Death Song, other than to say I don't get whatever point they're trying to make.

This might sound strange, but there are moments where the band reminds me of late Ramones. Especially in I Hate the TV.

Saving the best until last, 36-24-36 is crazy bouncing fun. The lyrics are probably quite offensive to feminists, but to me they're just lighthearted fun. However, my all-time favourite Violent Femmes song is I Held Her in My Arms. Like 36-24-36, it has a great infectious energy. But what elevates it to greatness is the confused story of teenage discovery. The pre-chorus is a particular highlight for me.

Favourite songs

Gone Daddy Gone, 36-24-36, I Held Her in My Arms, I Hate the TV, Dance M.F. Dance, Add It Up 

Wortwhile?

This is a tough one. The Violent Femmes' style doesn't really appeal to me, well, only a narrow fringe of it does. But that fringe is unique and wacky, so I guess it is enough to just drag this album across the line.