Search - Lisa Germano :: Happiness

A great album by a unique talent

woburnmusicfan | Woburn, MA United States | 04/08/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Reviewer: A music fan from Woburn, MA United States
Before she started making records, Lisa Germano was known mainly as a former violinist for John Mellencamp. On her albums, she plays moody and usually slow songs where she plays guitar, keyboard, accordian, violin, and mandolin, while singing songs that generally paint her as a helpless ... But both her songwriting vision and musical style are unique, and she's well worth giving a listen to. This album contains the only actual ROCK songs I've heard by her: "Puppet", "Everyone's Victim", and "Sycophant". "The Darkest Night of All" is a heartwrenching song that was once prominently used on NBC's "Homicide" show. Germano occasionally lightens up briefly, like on "The Dresses Song", about loving a man so much that "You make me want to wear dresses." But "Happiness" is a VERY ironic title for this album. On "Bad Attitude", she pictures the world as a cruel joke played on her ("You wish you were happy but you're not/Ha ha ha"), and that's probably the main theme of the album..."

Happiness - Ha!

Laurence Upton | Wilts, UK | 06/09/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"You have to warm to someone who sings about herself as an "inconsiderate bitch", calls her song publishing company Emotional Wench, and writes a song about her Bad Attitude. Known as a fiddle-player from her years on the road with John Mellencamp, it is her smokey voice and languid way with a song that first capture attention on this major-label debut solo album (she had an album on her own Major Bill label in 1991). There is a dark humour permeating the slightly sinister atmosphere of many of these songs, which makes for a most engaging wallow.

Apart from her own acerbically witty songs, on this original release of the album there is a suitably ironic re-working of These Boots Were Made For Walking, complete with the sounds of pots and pans being thrown in a fun temper tantrum, which demonstrates the spirit in which to appreciate these songs. This was dropped from the re-jigged version of the album which came out on Four AD in 1994, with a couple of the songs remixed by Ivo and John Fryer. If you have this original version of the album but want to hear remixes of the songs, you can find five of them on the recommended 26-minute EP Inconsiderate Bitch"