Customer Reviews

In the Grass

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

 

 

I heard the soundtrack to mtvs 'Daria' and liked it, found out it was written by Janet Wygal and performed by 'Splendora' so i bought this CD (their first and only CD) and was amazed,it offers everything to people who like pop/rock or rock alt.This is an album which doesnt just have a couple of good songs that you can listen to before you change the cd, IT IS EXCELLENT IN ITS FULL 14 TRACK GREATNESS. From start to finish all you can think is 'Why didnt i find this sooner!'this CD will certainly find its way to a permanent place in your cd player.Its a bit one sided of me to say this but i dont care "ITS IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO LIKE THIS CD"
If you manage to get a copy of this it will intise you to research on the band members, so let me save you a little time-
The Individuals,
The Wygals,
ZuZu's Petals,
Steve Wynn,
these are all artists assosiated with the band and are all worth giving a try. You will find it hard to comeby some of these(wygals,individuals), but 'The wygals-Honyocks in the withersoever' comes up occasionaly(odd time) on Ebay, a little tip for you,and also that other cd on amazon 'Splendora vs Fluffy' is nothing to do with this album, its a completley different artist(Tess Wiley who wrote the album 'Rainy Day Assembly')
To Sum Up This Review' BUY THIS ALBUM!!!!!!!

It's a tragedy that this is the only album Splendora produced, and that none of the artists involved seems to have done much else in music that I can find. Found this because I like the Daria theme song, and really love it. The style varies but it is all hard hitting, with interesting lyrics. Other artists you may like if you like this are Throwing Muses, 50 Foot Wave, The Breeders, Belly (at least I do).

I highly doubt anybody is reading a review of this rare album, unless they heard about the band from MTV's cartoon Daria. Just in case, Splendora is a short-lived, all-female grunge/punk band that almost defies genre, and released only one full-length album.

In the Grass does a lot of things for me that no other album I know does. This is something truly different. First, it is quite hard to fit into a single genre. It's a little faster than grunge and slower than punk, but has a lot of the elements common to both: loud distorted guitars, angry-sounding vocals, interesting chord changes. I guess you could call it alternative. Sure.

The fact that this is an all-female band, playing genres where you don't typically find many female musicians at all, gives this album a very interesting perspective. Grunge and punk are so male-dominated, so we typically find lyrics criticizing society, but rarely are women mentioned except as love interest. In this album, however, many of the songs criticize society from a woman's perspective, so they lyrics are refreshingly unique. For example, "Beautiful" is a criticism of girls that try to succeed based on their looks: "Are you a super waif?/Do you think you have something we all crave?/When we get hungry, we eat" The song hints at a depth you'd never find in a song sung by a dude: it acknowledges that society encourages women to focus on their looks, and criticizes those who do; not because they are shallow but because they have bent to this encouragement. "Shirt On" is another great perspective; as far as I can make out, its told from the point of view of a woman who is on hard times, but snubs the opportunity to sell her body, and lose her dignity, to make ends meet: "I keep my shirt on/cuz it won't hurt long/I'm waiting for a lucky day" When do men ever have to grapple with this sort of issue? The rest of the album continues the theme of world-weariness from the eyes of a woman, and speaking as a man, I find it fascinating to see this side of life.

The lyrics tend to be cynical and bitter on this album, aside from this. They are sung with a lot of emotion, and seem very believable. How can you compete with such intelligent, sardonic lines as, "Santa Claus must die/Superman won't fly/Polyanna blows my mind" or "I will call the ambulance/cuz honey, I still have some sense"? These songs are actually a perfect compliment to the attitude that keeps Daria fans coming back for more; Splendora was an excellent choice to provide the music for that show.

The music is pretty unique on this album as well. The sonic texture is interesting; cranky guitars resemble in harshness something out of a garage band's demo tape, while a cello and violin unexpectedly fill out most of the arrangements. They're used in a really great way, too- I've heard punk and grunge bands incorporate these instruments into their soft, slow parts, only to have them immediately cut out when the loud guitars come back in. However, the strings section in Splendora is always hanging around, basically just making things interesting and being creative. You wouldn't think it would work so well, but it does, giving the sound an almost sickly, exasperated quality that compliments the lyrics perfectly.

The chord progressions are extremely interesting on this album (I'm a chord geek so that's one of my favorite parts.) This is a far cry from 4-chord punk and one of the ways in which this music resembles grunge more. Splendora seem very fond of using all major chords, but frequently in places where one would expect the minor chords to go, so it's unexpected, energetic and catchy. For example, Breeze (one of my favorite tracks) kicks off with a powerful E7, to get things started... but then a D7 chord somehow provides the passing chord to the next section, which has these 4 chords: FM, AM, CM, BbM. It doesnt really make any sense, by traditional music theory, but it sounds great.

I'd warn people that this music is far from perfect, and isn't for everyone. It's loud and rough, so anybody who prefers a mellower sound probably won't dig it. Also, it gets a little repetitive from time to time (after a while, the songs all sound the same in some ways.) But in terms of artistic creativity and originality, its hard to find better in music these days. This was a band that really did its own thing, and told stories from an interesting perspective. If you liked the Daria theme song, you'll love this album.

I purchased this CD because I loved the theme song to MTV's "Daria", which is "You're Standing on My Neck". At first, the vocals sounded a little too perky and upbeat for me, but once I got more into the CD it was GREAT!
If you look at the CD from a different perspective, it's kinda cool, because the way they sing the songs, they sound perky, but if you listen closely to the lyrics, they're actually more alternative. And the music is awesome! I guess you could consider it to be pop-rock.
The songs ended up becoming kind of catchy and the music was just awesome! You just have to give this CD a chance and listen to it a second time so you can really get into the music.

If you want to listen to something different and are looking for a change in the regular music you usually hear, you should definately buy this CD. Just don't get your hopes up.

Very good CD that really shows off one of the last albums released in the 90's by an all-girl grunge band. Recommended to fans of Hole, L7, Veruca Salt, The Breeders etc.

An entire album's worth of elevator music, are you serious? These songs have no edge whatsoever! Or myabe I'm just missing something. The songs here are mostly mellow, drab and/or very long and drawn out. It takes forever for some these songs to pick-up!

I came across "Splendora" from tuning into MTv's cartoon series DARIA in the mid to late 90's. "Splendora" is the quintet that performed the HOT Pop/Rock theme song for the show, titled "You're Standing On My Neck". Unfortunatley, That song is not here on the album but didn't stop me from purchasing it. 3 songs out of the 14 on this album even come close to what "You're Standing On My Neck" even sounds like. The other 11 tracks sounds like leftover's from the cranberries (Not what I had in mind when purchasing).

The opening track "Bee Stung Lips" is more of what I had in mind for the entire album, an EXPLOSIVE, EAR-RINGING Pop/Rock grit to it that pierces the ear drum when turned to the right volume. The arrangment is a modernized 60's (Garage)girl group song.

"Breeze", "Rattle" and "Reanimator" are the only other upbeat songs that actually "Count", To be honest "Reanimator" sucks. I really like the Cranberries but that's not what I was looking for when I ordered a "Splendora" album. Another song I like is "Sever" and "Rat Fink" is moving, Those are really cool songs only in comparison to what else there is to choose from. Even after listening to the listenable songs, The band still doesn't budge...

From the sound of the Daria theme and the opening track of (In The Grass), "Bee Stung Lips", I truely believed I was in for something more grunge, post-grunge. Something identical to other 90's Grrrl fronted bands like L7 (Bricks Are Heavy), some stuff from Veruca Salt, Hole (Celebrity Skin),especially Elastica (debut), Throwing Muses (Limbo), Betty Blowtorch and definitely more like The Friggs (ROCK CANDY-album). Even though The Friggs were more RockNRoll, i would've expected that before (In The Grass)- while still being their own selves and doing something distinct, Ya' know?... The Riot girl sound. C'mon!, It was 1995! everyone was gritty! On "occasion" I'm heavily reminded of The Breeders, vocally and musically. For instance, the song "Breeze" is very Kim Deal, which is most likely the reason I love it. For the most part, Splendora sounds like a bunch of Nuns. I would've even prefered if they had a sound similar to The Bangles, Aslong as they ROCK!, The Bangles ROCK!

When I purchased this album Song Samples weren't available at that time, I would suggest listening to the samples before wasting your money. What's really bad is the potential this quintet had to rock-out and give us something more than what they did. The vocals and the well blendedv harmonies of the band are divine! That's one thing you can't take from them, Their vocals are amazing.

The lead vocals are smooth, crisp and again, well harmonized. I love the lead singers tone and nonchalant sound, She reminds me a lot of Shirley Manson, and even more like Kim Deal.

There's one more upbeat song available but I can't remember what the name of it is (That should say alot).