Me. Me. Me. | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | 1995 | |||
Recorded | May 1995 | |||
Studio | Criteria | |||
Genre | Indie rock | |||
Label | 4AD/Teenbeat [1] | |||
Producer | Guy Fixsen | |||
Air Miami chronology | ||||
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Me. Me. Me. (also stylized as me. me. me.) is the only album by the American indie rock band Air Miami, released in 1995. [2] It was recorded after the breakup of Unrest, the former band of guitarist Mark Robinson and bassist Bridget Cross. [3] The band promoted the album with a North American tour that included shows with Throwing Muses. [4]
Recorded during two weeks in May 1995 at Criteria Studios, in Miami, the album was produced by Guy Fixsen; Gabriel Stout played drums. [5] [6] [7] It was the band's intention to produce an album of short songs. [7] "Afternoon Train" is a re-recording of the final Unrest single. [8]
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [9] |
The Austin Chronicle | [10] |
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [5] |
MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide | [11] |
The Philadelphia Inquirer | [12] |
Press & Sun-Bulletin | A [13] |
Spin | 8/10 [14] |
The Tampa Tribune | [15] |
Me. Me. Me. was met with generally favourable reviews. The Washington Post wrote that Robinson and Cross "trade lead vocals on 13 short songs that combine bubblegum tunefulness ('Neely'), with lounge-ballad melancholy ('Seabird'), evanescent soundscapes ('Reprise') and occasional space-rock bleeps." [6] Trouser Press thought that "the bubblegum aftertaste left by segments of Me. Me. Me. is a bit too strong when Robinson indulges his propensity for creating inconsequential chantalongs like 'World Cup Fever', but he offsets that with reams of bracing, Fire Engines-styled guitar and a guileless new wave sensibility (see 'Dolphin Expressway') that should sway all but the most diehard Anglophobe." [16] The Austin Chronicle deemed the album "a heady mix of danceable trivialities and serious longing." [10] The Tampa Tribune concluded that "Air Miami soars through a universe of pop styles with a surfeit of panache and a minimum of bombast... Pure pleasure—clean, clever, surprising." [15]
Spin called Robinson "one of the few men in indieland who can hold a vocal melody," and wrote that "the guitar work here is as nimble as Dean Wareham's." [14] The Post and Courier determined that "Robinson's avant pop/punk songs are fun, and serve as great set-ups for Cross' more oblique offerings." [17] The St. Louis Post-Dispatch labeled the album "alternately fun and pretentious, like most 4AD stuff," writing that "faced with the choice of copping either atmospheric Velvets-style arrangements or Wire-esque sprinters, Air Miami did the all-American thing and riffed off both." [18]
AllMusic wrote that, "unsurprisingly, early drum machines provide percussion as well, a sonic signifier that also fits nicely more often than not ... Me, Me, Me is a simpler musical pleasure than most." [9] MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide opined that Me. Me. Me. "doesn't have the giddiness of the Unrest work, but it is sweet to listen to." [11]
Time Out considered the album cover to be one of the 40 best of the 1990s. [19] "Seabird" was covered by Maria Somerville for the 2021 4AD compilation Bills & Aches & Blues . [20]
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "I Hate Milk" | |
2. | "World Cup Fever" | |
3. | "Seabird" | |
4. | "Special Angel" | |
5. | "Afternoon Train" | |
6. | "Dolphin Expressway" | |
7. | "Sweet as a Candy Bar" | |
8. | "You Sweet Little Heartbreaker" | |
9. | "Neely" | |
10. | "Bubble Shield" | |
11. | "The Event Horizon" | |
12. | "Definitely Beachy" | |
13. | "Reprise" |
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