Pristine Smut | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | June 24, 1997 | |||
Recorded | 1997 [1] | |||
Studio | Capitol Studios, Hollywood, California Mushroom Studios Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Placebo Studio, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada | |||
Genre | Alternative pop | |||
Label | MCA | |||
Producer | Larry Klein k.d. lang Matthew Wilder | |||
The Murmurs chronology | ||||
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Pristine Smut is an album released by American alternative pop band the Murmurs; it was released on June 24, 1997, by MCA. [2] The album was produced by Larry Klein and k.d. lang and all tracks on the album were written by The Murmurs members Heather Grody and Leisha Hailey. [3] The track "Squeezebox Days" featured on the soundtrack to the 1997 film All Over Me . [4]
The album's co-producer k.d. lang had started dating band member Leisha Hailey in 1996, a year before the album was recorded. In a 2000 interview, Lang reflected "We [didn't] want to get involved in each other's art [...] My producing of the Murmurs was just to help them out because I had a studio and they needed tracks done. And it was fun for me because I always wanted to produce a girl group like that." [5] Its working title was The Ballad of Pristine Smut. [6]
The track "Sleepless Commotion" was written by Heather Grody, about the murder of her mother, who was killed by her husband.
The album was poorly promoted by the band's label, MCA Records, who were going through staff changes at the time. [7]
In a review for Allmusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave Pristine Smut a star rating of four out of five. [8] He noted that the album had a rhythm section added to the "folk pop" of its predecessor, 1994's Murmurs. He praised producers Klein and Lang for steering the band towards "adult alternative rock" but said that the sound was "clean and pristine ... shined and polished and now ready for radio". He said, however, that the songs on Pristine Smut were stronger than those of the previous album. [8]
Robert Christgau gave the album an A− rating and praised it as an improvement on their previous album. He said of Pristine Smut, "not since Liz Phair's "Flower", Janet's "Throb", and Madonna's Erotica has pop softcore attended so sweetly to the erogenous zones." [9] In a review for The Advocate , Barry Walters also noted the "rockin' rhythm section" of the second album. He described the tracks produced by Lang as "punk[y]" and "Nirvana-esque" and the ones produced by Klein as "like Suzanne Vega before dance beats discovered her". [10]
It was nominated for an award for Album of the Year at the Gay & Lesbian American Music Awards in 1998. [11]
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Leisha Hailey is an American actress and musician known for playing Alice Pieszecki in the Showtime Networks series The L Word and The L Word: Generation Q. Hailey first came to the public's attention as a musician in the pop duo The Murmurs and has continued her music career as part of the band Uh Huh Her. Leisha is known for being a queer actress. Currently, the actress works as Alice in "The L Word: Generation Q", and hosts podcast, PANTS with fellow L Word star and close friend, Kate Moennig.
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Eric Clapton is the debut studio album by British rock musician Eric Clapton, released in August 1970 under Atco and Polydor Records.
The Murmurs were an American alternative pop music duo composed of singer-songwriters Leisha Hailey and Heather Grody. Some time after the duo went their separate ways, Hailey became one half of Uh Huh Her and Grody became a founding member of Redcar.
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Talk Show is the third studio album by the American rock band the Go-Go's, released on the I.R.S. label in 1984. Although some critics considered it an inspired return to form after their second album Vacation, other than the No. 11 hit single "Head over Heels", the album was a relative commercial disappointment, peaking at No. 18 and selling fewer than 500,000 copies. This would be the last all-original album by the group until 2001's God Bless The Go-Go's.
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Blender is the third studio album released by American alternative pop band The Murmurs; it was released on August 4, 1998 on MCA. The album was produced by Larry Klein, k.d. lang and Matthew Wilder. Blender primarily consists of tracks from their second album Pristine Smut, originally released in June 1997. One of them, "I'm A Mess", was remixed; additionally, three new songs written around the time of Pristine Smut's release are included. All of the tracks were written by band members Leisha Hailey and Heather Grody. One, "Smash", was co-written with members of rock band The Go-Go's, Jane Wiedlin and Charlotte Caffey.
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