Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes

A regular rite of passage for music fans is to get a friend to listen to the Violent Femmes’ self-titled debut album and have them guess what year it was released, and then to watch them react in shock to the fact is was released in 1983, ten years earlier than presumed. To pinpoint why they suggested the mid-90s, look to the aesthetics and personalities of each decade. The 80s was overcoated with a pristine sheen everywhere; recordings were bright and synthetic, and the punk music was conversely more direct in its aggression, compared to the 90s, which was charged with angst.

With a rugged folk-rock texture, Violent Femmes belongs on the same branch as artists like Elliot Smith and Simon Joyner, who they arguably influenced. The record’s standout single, “Blister In The Sun” became popular a decade after its release, further proving its true home in the alt-rock decade. Bubbling over with a sprightly guitar riff and lead singer Gordon Gano’s timid, nasal vocals, it soundtracks the hit Wisconsin-based 90s sitcom that never was. Though on its cracked surface, Violent Femmes may appear to be a light-hearted affair, its songs have a morose underbelly. “Add It Up” details Gano cheating sexual conquest with a prostitute, “Promise” spills over with self-destruction and frustration, the album even closes out with a song alluding to date rape. It’s this juvenile melodrama that kept these songs in circulation years after their initial point of impact, and inspired the lyrical angst of grunge and folk-rock artists to come.