"I am a relative newcomer to Lisa Germano, and I only have Happiness (Capitol) and Excerpts...everyone needs to hear this affecting album. I'll give a song by song review.
1) Nobody's Playing - This song starts the cd off gently, a relatively happy sounding tune. The piano is relaxing, but, as is true in the rest of the album as well, the lyrics are dark.
2) Paper Doll - This song features guitar and some layered vocals. It has a kind of happy feel to it.
3) Liquid Pig - This is a track that is very hard to listen to, because it is quite disturbing. (I personally love it) It features eerie bird calls, slow drums, and heavily distorted vocals. You need to hear this song, which is reminiscent of Tori Amos's cover, "97 Bonnie & Clyde."
4) Pearls - This soft tune on the piano is a sharp contrast to Liquid Pig, but the lyrics are some of the saddest on the album.
5) Candy - This is one of the few happy songs on the album, or at least it sounds happy. It's uptempo and circusy sounding.
6) Dream Glasses Off - Downbeat song on guitar, has a dark sort of vibe, very interesting.
7) From A Shell - Piano and guitar song, depressing and hopeful at the same time, if that's possible. If not, it's just depressing.
8) It's Party Time - Another of the uptempo happy sounding songs on the album. Although it's not one of my favorites, it's still an interesting song.
9) All The Pretty Lies - dark song, with strange background noises. Her singing is prominent on this track to me for some reason.
10) Lullaby For Liquid Pig - Sharply contrasting to the first "Liquid Pig" song, this one really is a lullaby. The lyrics, though, are more of the album's saddest.
11) Into The Night - This song has soft guitar in the background, and is sonically very interesting.
12) ...To Dream - The album's closer is a hopeful sounding one, "don't give up your dream/it's really all you have/and I don't want to see you die."
This amazing album tells the story of a depressed artist reflecting on her life, and somehow finding hope. One of the best albums I've come across."
So Good
04/23/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Lisa Germano is so good, which is especially cool given that she might also be pretty freaky. It's funny because you kind of want to just reach through the liner notes and knock the toaster away from her bath or take the razor out of her hand before she hurts herself, but the music is good even if you're not depressed. There are some artists who, when you're bummed, you're just like "oh man you understand me", but when you're cool you're just like, "shut up whinymoz", but Lisa Germano's music is so good even when you're not lying awake at night thinking about whether you'd go to Heaven if you made your momma cry like that."
Not for everyone
Sven B. Schreiber | Fürth (Bayern) | 06/15/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Lisa is one of the artists that split the world in two very distinct parts: Some adore here, and some just don't get what her music is supposed to be. I'm from the former group, but I admit that it's not always easy to listen to her - at least not in every mood. Lisa's music is usually very slow, quiet, minimalistic, and depressive, and so is her new album, "Lullaby For Liquid Pig". But actually, that's what her fans want to hear from her! So if you're in a very melancholic mood, and if you're not in a hurry, Lisa's songs come in best. She uses very few notes in her songs, but these notes are placed geniously. Her arrangements are unconventional, sometimes even weird, but that's what makes them interesting. Her voice is hoarse and fragile, but that's what ideally matches her lyrics. So the bottom line is: If you are searching for something special, and if you're not looking for pop or dance music, and if you're not in a suicidal mood, get this CD, and you will experience very honest and deep emotions in a musically package that's very different from the usual ones. Really!"
Ghostly, delicate, stunning
Sven B. Schreiber | 05/03/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Well, I hope she's alright, because for an artist well-acquainted with, dark, unsettling music, this seems to be coming from a hitherto unreached depth that is breathtaking and more than a bit chilling. On other albums she has underscored some of the darker aspects with black humor and the odd rock n roll touch, but this... this is an entirely different animal. Pared straight to the bone musically and lyrically, and sung with such purity and desperation it just makes you want to do something to HELP somehow, to lighten the weight of the world from her shoulders. The title track and "It's Party Time" are among the strongest, bleakest, most fragile states of mind ever captured in music, and "From A Shell" comes from a place where angels drop from the sky and dissolve on impact. Staggeringly painful, beautiful in its horrible resignation. Again, I really hope she's alright. Buy this and everything else she's ever recorded."
Languorous, lovely, dreamy?
William Merrill | San Antonio, TX United States | 04/16/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Descriptions of Lisa's music don't always contain flattering adjectives, but often words more along the lines of "gloomy," "dark," or "depressing." I think that's unfair to this talented and under-appreciated artist, who admittedly has her own unique approach. Her music reminds me of an ancient calliope playing slowly and beautifully in an abandoned amusement park occupied only by ghosts. On the new Liquid Pig disc, Ms. Germano delivers a dozen quietly striking tunes in her breathy vocal style. It often sounds almost like she's whispering the lyrics rather than singing them, but it has the same effect as a teacher who deliberately talks softly to force students to listen. With Lisa you don't want to turn away because you might miss something.One aspect of the music I really appreciated, but one worth warning people about, is her use of various weird sound effects to create atmosphere for the songs. On "All The Pretty Lies," for instance, a quaint and lovely piano part is accompanied by a distant sawing, scraping metallic noise that accents the piece and makes it sound even lonelier. "Pearls" has an almost normal rock beat, but vibrates with a slightly distorted guitar and fuzzy percussion that sounds kind of like white noise, except channeled into the song's dreamy vibe.My only complaint (very minor) was the lack of printed lyrics in the CD booklet, but I didn't care too much about that because the music is so fine."