| My Way or the Highway | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1998 | |||
| Genre | Indie rock | |||
| Label | Teen Beat/Elektra [1] | |||
| Producer | Keith Cleversley | |||
| Tuscadero chronology | ||||
| ||||
My Way or the Highway is an album by the American indie rock band Tuscadero, released in 1998. [2] [3] The first single was "Paper Dolls". [4] The band supported the album with a North American tour. [5]
The album was produced by Keith Cleversley. [6] Tuscadero devoted more time to constructing the songs, while also attempting to avoid creating an overly slick record. [7] Guitar players Melissa Farris and Margaret McCartney employed fuzz tones on the album and also made use of technically inferior, "trashy" sound equipment. [8] "Tickled Pink" is about binge drinking. [9]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [10] |
| Robert Christgau |  [11] |
| Entertainment Weekly | B+ [12] |
| Knoxville News Sentinel | [13] |
| San Francisco Examiner | [14] |
The Washington Post thought that "the band's appeal does get lost in the ornate production of a few of these tracks, notably the over-orchestrated 'Dr. Doom' and the anti-super model 'Paper Dolls', which rides its funky sax sound to the six-minute mark." [15] Robert Christgau praised the "songcraft as end-in-itself." [11] Newsday noted that the album "abandons some of the kitsch of its previous effort for stern, often angry lyrics." [16]
Tulsa World called the album "fun, gritty pop," noting Farris's "reverence for the Pretenders/Blondie ethos." [17] Entertainment Weekly opined that "sonic departures like the slinky antifashion anthem 'Paper Dolls' and the flamboyantly James Bondish 'Dr. Doom' neatly transcend alt-guitar-rock limitations." [12] The Dayton Daily News wrote: "Meaty hooks and solid crunch back up songs that mostly pick on campus rock-band preptiles who overindulge in, um, passably clever pop-cultural strip mining." [18]
AllMusic wrote that the "heady concoction of fizzy pop hooks, teen melodrama, slamming punk, and misfit glee makes My Way or the Highway an intoxicating punk-pop rush." [10]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Queen for a Day" | |
| 2. | "Paper Dolls" | |
| 3. | "Freak Magnet" | |
| 4. | "Not My Johnny" | |
| 5. | "Hot Head" | |
| 6. | "Tiny Shiny Boyfriend" | |
| 7. | "Dr. Doom" | |
| 8. | "Tickled Pink" | |
| 9. | "Evil Eye" | |
| 10. | "You Got Your Pride" | |
| 11. | "Cathy Ray" | |
| 12. | "Liquid Center" | |
| 13. | "Temper Temper" | |
| 14. | "Mutiny" |
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