Lolita Nation
| Lolita Nation | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Game Theory | ||||
| Released | December 1, 1987 | |||
| Recorded | 1987 | |||
| Genre | Alternative rock, power pop | |||
| Length | 74:06 | |||
| Label | Enigma Records | |||
| Producer | Mitch Easter | |||
| Game Theory chronology | ||||
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| Back cover | ||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Blurt |  |
| Mojo | |
| Philadelphia Inquirer | |
| PopMatters | 9/10 |
| Uncut (UK) | 9/10 |
Lolita Nation is the fourth full-length album by Game Theory, a California power pop band fronted by guitarist and singer-songwriter Scott Miller. Originally released in 1987 as a double LP, the album was reissued by Omnivore Recordings in February 2016 as a double CD set with 21 bonus tracks.
For Game Theory's October–November 1986 national tour supporting the release of The Big Shot Chronicles, the band took on two new members, resulting in the line-up of Scott Miller (lead vocal, guitars), Shelley LaFreniere (keyboards), Gil Ray (drums), Guillaume Gassuan (bass), and Donnette Thayer (backing vocal, guitars). Thayer, who was then Miller's girlfriend, had been a guest musician on Game Theory's first album, Blaze of Glory. This iteration of the band recorded two albums, Lolita Nation (1987) and Two Steps from the Middle Ages (1988).
Miller told the San Francisco Chronicle that, with Lolita Nation, he "wanted to throw away some of the givens. It's meant to have a lot of unexpected things happening on it without being abrasive or industrial," labeling the music "experimental pop."
When asked about the album title's relation to Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita, Miller admitted that although he had read Nabokov's Pale Fire, he had never actually finished the book Lolita, which he found "too relentless." He had instead drawn upon the 1962 film version of Lolita for the album's title concept:
I knew all I needed to know for my appropriation of the concept to work for me. In my midtwenties I felt powerless and persecuted. What did the world want me for? The title made me think of an entire generation of Lolitas: someone—our parents? God?—needed us to be there, but the need felt neurotic and uncompassionate. In “We Love You Carol and Alison” (my favorite Game Theory song) I'm trying to express that teen alienation thing that the kids go for, but I’m also fishing around for a basis of proper adulthood.
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Wikipedia