Customer Reviews

Geek the Girl

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album is scary. And by scary, I don't mean "let's go put on Halloween costumes and sing about boogeymen" scary. Or "abrasive cathartic white noise" scary. I'm talking about straight up bone-chilling scary.And the most disturbing thing about "Geek The Girl" is that what's scary is the reality of it. Lisa Germano's voice is thin and ethereal, sounding like a pale long-lost ghost bemoaning her past. At least that's what I imagined. Maybe I let my imagination run away with me, but everytime I listen to "Geek The Girl" I see Germano as some transparent sad gaunt ghost sitting at a piano bathed in the moonlight with sad empty eyes playing away ambient harrowing tunes. The entire album has this dark suicidal depressive pall over it. Even the somewhat light hearted gypsy instrumentals slid in between certain songs, lends no light to the murkiness. In fact, it only makes it even scarier. I cannot listen to this album sometimes because its so overwhelming. Don't even get me started on "...a psychopath". I nearly s**t myself, the first time I listened to it. With that actual 911 call in the background, ending with the caller screaming in a panic too real for comfort - "Why aren't you here?" Its morbid and I just feel like [throwing up] after listening to it. And those strings that she sparingly layers on to the minimalist piano tinkling away just seem to rend my heart in two. The other songs are still terribly frightening and deathly. "My Secret Reason", "Cancer of Everything", "Geek The Girl", "Cry Cry Wolf" are the standouts - tearjerking tunes that rivet your attention with a haunting melody. I can't listen to this album anymore than once a day. Its a work of art, no doubt. Not exactly what you could call "beautiful" - but it does have a majestic power to it. I didn't really care to delve into this album, but it pulls you in without mercy whether you want to or not. It's impossible to remain detached and distant, you feel like you're standing right next to the protagonist. "Geek The Girl" is more of an album that you can respect for its scope and concept more than you can be like "Oh I love this album!" For me at least. I'm more like "Stay away." But I return to it everytime. Ha ha ha...I'm such a geek.

Some records are just destined to be overlooked by the masses in their own time -- Aimee Mann's Whatever, The Velvet Underground's debut, Shannon Wright's Maps of Tacit -- and Lisa Germano's Geek the Girl is one of them. Everyone in the rock community who did hear this record immediately acknowledged its importance (four stars in Rolling Stone); this is one album that definitely gets under your skin and carves its own unique place in the world during its first few seconds.

Germano, best known for her wonderful violin and mandolin work with John Mellencamp (best showcased on the excellent, rootsy Human Wheels album), is all over the map on her own records, playing most of the instruments and penning all the songs. She has a great ear for unnatural, disturbing musical beauty: Her own voice is a fragile, broken and sometimes sarcastic croon, kind of like Neil Young's in its often offkey pitch, but still a seductive one, and not entirely pessimistic. Germano's self-deprecating delivery is enormously affecting, but also very unnerving, as she always reveals pieces of you here and there. "My Secret Reason" opens the album heavily with an almost psychotic whirr of distorted sounds. Guitar? Keyboard? With Germano, it's always hard to tell instruments apart. "Trouble"'s lilting melody and light-fingered instrumentation evoke a phantasmic carousel ride, kind of like Lauren Hoffman with a massive dose of psychosis thrown into the mix; the title track is downright frightening in its suicidally depressed lyrics, ghostly vocal arrangement (Germano's multi-layered vocals are simply brilliant here), and slivers of chiming, funereal electric guitars. "...A Psychopath" best sums up the album...a journey into the mind of Germano's main character, a repressed, depressed, and self-aware woman whose demons appear to be coming alive by virtue of suffocating presence.

There is no other sonic experience quite like this album. Not the heavy soundscapes of My Dying Bride, not the pots-and-pans experimentation of Miranda Sex Garden, and not the equally worthy and eccentric Shannon Wright. Geek the Girl is worth owning just for its unique personality.

I bought this CD because it was mentioned as one of Spin magazine's top albums of the 90s. Well, I got it in the mail and popped it into my CD player. I had no idea what to expect... but the second I heard that intensely creepy carnival jukebox music that kicked off the first track, my hackles rose. The rest of the album proceeded to stir my emotions like few other artists can do... the song 'Cry Wolf', about impulse and regret, almost had me crying myself. The other, 'A Psychopath', which features an actual 911 call, tense strings, and that jukebox again, absolutely scared the living daylights out of me. All wrapped up in a nice little package, DIE to all rapists and stalkers."

Somehow I listened to the whole thing, then I put the CD on the shelf and did not even touch it for weeks.

Later, when I listened again, I realized that past the initial shock value is an incredibly deep, powerful, heart-rending album. This album tells a story, and it is a story to bring tears to your eyes. Lisa Germano's rough voice is the perfect compliment to the jagged emotions on display here, and I was equally impressed by the fact that the lion's share of instrumental work was done by her as well. Be prepared to be scared by this album - then gather the courage to listen again, and you'll love it. I do.

Another Amazon reviewer described Lisa Germano's sound as "Joni Mitchell meets Lou Reed's 'Berlin' as produced by Brian Eno." That description fits quite well. For me, Lisa Germano is the most honest, courageous and amazing artist to emerge in the 1990's. Her recorded work has always been mid-tempo and aching. 1996's 'Excerpts from a Love Circus' may have the best overall musical balance, but this unforgettable CD takes her - and us - to the darkest emotional place a human can go.

No hype: 'Geek the Girl' has the same emotional power as the first Velvet Underground record, Nick Drake's 'Pink Moon', Nico's 'Desertshore' and John Lennon's 'Plastic Ono' record. It meets that tough standard, and shares similar musical ground. It's a "concept album", but without flutes, narration, or capes. It's not like Pink Floyd's 'The Wall' either - there's no juvenile ego lashing out. It's a truthful look at how bad choices & depression create a very closed suffering life. The songs play out just that way, I don't see the uplifting ending other critics feel. This CD is dark dark black, the most harrowing record since Nico's 'The End' in 1974. All without a single "goth" gimmick.

The depression would be unbearable if the songs weren't so loving and musical. Low-key, lots of tremolo pedals, simple fiddle and crunchy punk-chord slow guitar. Germano's voice is mid-baritone, a sad voice from bad experiences. And real guts. To bare yourself so completely, to reveal yourself so fearlessly. THIS artist is grrl power, no tattos, no slogans, no hype, just truth & honesty. You need to experience this record.

I'm sorry, but Lisa Germano is a genius. Her music is extremely difficult to pigeonhole. She is a a trained violinist (who backed up John Mellencamp years back) who writes troubled rock/folk songs. Her lyrics are parred-down and naive and almost childlike, communicating fears about really complex situations in really simple language. I can't thing of another musician who can easily get away with a phrase like "love is weird" (on "Cry Wolf"). But she totally can.
Her compositions are very simple and melodic, but there is always an undermining of dissonance, which is curious and unsettling and beautiful all at once. Her music often illustrates a message from the perspective of an introspective and intoverted adolescent girl, who is often puzzled and paranoid about her experiences. it is this perspective that makes her music so original, and ultimately potent.
My favorite song on this LP is "Cancer of Everything." It is SO funny and sad and pretty revealing about people that are introverted and paranoid. I am also really smitten by the first track, "My Secret Reason," which is really confessional and kind of frightening. But the whole CD really takes you on an emotional roller-coaster ride, which is a really welcomed experience.
I would not agree, however, that this album is "scary" by any means. Yes-there are moments that reveal the horror of situations, but there also an equal amount of really playful and humourous moments as well (check out "Just Geek" and "Trouble")...it is a very well-balanced foray into the human psyche. Troubling and moving, but also managing to remain cute and possitive in the end.
If you're still unable to picture her sound, just think of Liz Phair writing music from the perspective of a sexually repressed teenage girl. then add some violin and some serious mood, and there you are. Lisa Germano is a truly original musician in a time where using those two words together is pretty rare. She is relatively unknown (not her fault) and pathetically underappreciated (again-not her fault).
She has been around for quite a few years now, and everybody should be taking notice.

Please also check out her other releases, especially "Happiness" and "Love Circus." The song "Forget it, it's a Mystery" is a real treat.

Lisa Germano, aside from being one of the most talented musicians/artists in today's music scene, is an expert on relationships--and how and why they go wrong. The sadness, guilt, frustration and disappointment that characterizes a failed relationship has been a constant throughout her body of work, and is most deeply felt on this, her third album and masterpiece. At times, "Geek the Girl" digs even deeper, dealing with such disturbing topics as date rape and stalkers. It IS harrowing, but it is also one of the most beautiful and touching albums you will ever, ever hear. Germano's songcraft is flawless and the instrumentation (mostly performed by herself) is gauzy and at times overwhelmingly gorgeous. "Geek The Girl" may be too emotionally intense for some, but for those who look for true beauty, honesty and expert songcraft in their music I strongly suggest picking up this breathtaking, classic album.

On "Geek the Girl", Lisa Germano has taken her beautiful but pessimistic music and created a concept album about a passive slacker waif who participates so little in her own life that she's a doormat for all those around her. (Germano continued this persona on her next album, "Excerpts from a Love Circus", and I hope to God that she isn't actually like the girl she sings about.) It's a rare songwriting talent to be able to get the maximum information and nuance across to the listener using the fewest and simplest words possible. Germano keeps the words and music spare and simple, and by the end of the album, you know the depths of this character's soul. The music can't exactly be called rock--it's more like, um, alternative goth New Age. Germano plays most of the instruments herself (guitar, keyboards, violin, and more) and sings in a wispy voice that fits Geek's hapless character. She sets her "angry and dumb" alter-ego's bottom line on the title cut, with it's "Oh, oh, I'm not too cool" chorus. Following a breakup, on "Cry Wolf", she berates herself, "You should have known better/It's all your fault". By "Cancer of Everything", Geek is reduced to passive-aggressive psychosomaticism ("If I fall down in a place, it's cause I get attention"). But in between is one of the most chilling moments you're likely to hear on CD, "...a Psychopath", on which Geek's sing-song about an abusive boyfriend is backed by a 911 recording of a woman utterly terrified by a home intruder. Along the way, there's a repeated snippet of a ersatz Italian folk song, and a couple of instrumentals that fit the mood, with Germano playing minimalist violin to great effect. In the end, Geek remains hopeful despite it all. Is she persevering or just too dumb to know better? Germano suggests it's some of each. (By the way, I swear I once heard "Just Geek" as the soundtrack to a software company commercial, probably the prank of a disgruntled ad-man.)

I couldn't believe this album when I first heard it, much less like it. But after the initial shock was over, and I stopped shaking, I realized this was one of the most amazing albums I had ever heard, and I mean that. Think Lou Reed's Berlin meets Joni Mitchell's Blue recorded by Brian Eno. It's crazy, but it works. This is a dark, super-personal album that contacts some of the most amazing senses in your mind and body (not to sound too hippy-like.) Actually, this album scares the s*** out of me, and I love it.

I don't know about the rest of this album but song no.5 "Cry Wolf" alone worth the price.
What you should do is this: buy this album at once, shade your room, read the intro on the inner side of the envelope
while listening to "Cry wolf" and shed a tear for geek the poor girl

Very creepy and ominous, with Ms. Germano whispering disturbing lyrics over a dark background. I like the comparison to Nick Drake's _Pink Moon_... except that _Geek_ is much darker. I have been trying to find a bad or throwaway song on the album and not succeeding. Definitely *NOT* the album to put on the CD player when you want a romantic evening though.