Geek the Girl
| Geek the Girl | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Lisa Germano | ||||
| Released | October 25, 1994 | |||
| Recorded | Echo Park Studio, Bloomington, Indiana | |||
| Genre | Slowcore, folk rock | |||
| Length | 43:38 | |||
| Label | 4AD | |||
| Producer | Lisa Germano, Malcolm Burn | |||
| Lisa Germano chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Entertainment Weekly | A+ |
| Hot Press | 8/12 |
Geek the Girl is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Lisa Germano. A breakthrough of sorts for her, it was released in 1994 by record label 4AD, just six months after the re-release of her previous album, Happiness.
The album earned Germano the most praise she'd yet received from the press, becoming a critical favorite – including being featured as the 84th best album of the 1990s by the music magazine Spin.
Most tracks on Geek the Girl were originally recorded at Lisa Germano's home, giving the album an intimate and demo-like feel. Initially, she played all of the instruments on the record, but she then chose to re-mix four of the tracks with the help of Malcolm Burn, and added Kenny Aronoff on drums.
All of the songs on the album are written by Germano, except for 'Just Geek' and 'Sexy Little Princess', which were co-authored by Malcolm Burn, and 'Cry Wolf', which she wrote with Jay Joyce. The album was produced by Germano and Malcolm Burn. It was mixed by Burn at Echo Park Studio in Bloomington, IN, and Kenny Aronoff's drum performances were also recorded there. The album was mastered at Masterdisk. Assistant engineers were Mark Hood, Pat Keating and Ron Black.
Lisa Germano has said that "Geek the Girl is about this person who’s not growing and is real stuck. Most of my records are about people who are stuck but they want to go somewhere else."
Throughout the album, Germano uses a Sicilian folk tune called 'Frascilita' as an interlude between songs, as well as for the introduction to the album, on the first track 'My Secret Reason'. She introduced this piece to add some levity to the album, as she thought it "really needed some comic relief." The album deals with some dark subjects, including stalking (in the much-discussed track 'A Psychopath'), media censorship and inherent evil ('My Secret Reason'), and rape ('Cry Wolf').
The song 'A Psychopath', which samples a real 911 call where a woman confronts an intruder in her home, was inspired by an experience Germano had as a child, when she was riding her bike and a strange man exposed himself to her. The song was written about the general feeling of powerlessness that women can experience, especially with regard to sexual predators. She obtained the 911 call recording from a rape centre (with their permission), after originally encountering it in a documentary about violence. She was initially hesitant to use the recording, thinking it was "too intense", however ultimately decided it was something worth saying. Germano has said that making the song was scary and very upsetting, and that she had trouble sleeping after recording it.
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