Customer Reviews

Lullaby for Liquid Pig (+Bonus CD)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Lisa Germano is so good, which is especially cool given that she might also be pretty freaky. It's funny because you kind of want to just reach through the liner notes and knock the toaster away from her bath or take the razor out of her hand before she hurts herself, but the music is good even if you're not depressed. There are some artists who, when you're bummed, you're just like "oh man you understand me", but when you're cool you're just like, "shut up whinymoz", but Lisa Germano's music is so good even when you're not lying awake at night thinking about whether you'd go to Heaven if you made your momma cry like that.

I am a relative newcomer to Lisa Germano, and I only have Happiness (Capitol) and Excerpts...everyone needs to hear this affecting album. I'll give a song by song review.
1) Nobody's Playing - This song starts the cd off gently, a relatively happy sounding tune. The piano is relaxing, but, as is true in the rest of the album as well, the lyrics are dark.
2) Paper Doll - This song features guitar and some layered vocals. It has a kind of happy feel to it.
3) Liquid Pig - This is a track that is very hard to listen to, because it is quite disturbing. (I personally love it) It features eerie bird calls, slow drums, and heavily distorted vocals. You need to hear this song, which is reminiscent of Tori Amos's cover, "97 Bonnie & Clyde."
4) Pearls - This soft tune on the piano is a sharp contrast to Liquid Pig, but the lyrics are some of the saddest on the album.
5) Candy - This is one of the few happy songs on the album, or at least it sounds happy. It's uptempo and circusy sounding.
6) Dream Glasses Off - Downbeat song on guitar, has a dark sort of vibe, very interesting.
7) From A Shell - Piano and guitar song, depressing and hopeful at the same time, if that's possible. If not, it's just depressing.
8) It's Party Time - Another of the uptempo happy sounding songs on the album. Although it's not one of my favorites, it's still an interesting song.
9) All The Pretty Lies - dark song, with strange background noises. Her singing is prominent on this track to me for some reason.
10) Lullaby For Liquid Pig - Sharply contrasting to the first "Liquid Pig" song, this one really is a lullaby. The lyrics, though, are more of the album's saddest.
11) Into The Night - This song has soft guitar in the background, and is sonically very interesting.
12) ...To Dream - The album's closer is a hopeful sounding one, "don't give up your dream/it's really all you have/and I don't want to see you die."
This amazing album tells the story of a depressed artist reflecting on her life, and somehow finding hope. One of the best albums I've come across.

Lisa is one of the artists that split the world in two very distinct parts: Some adore here, and some just don't get what her music is supposed to be. I'm from the former group, but I admit that it's not always easy to listen to her - at least not in every mood. Lisa's music is usually very slow, quiet, minimalistic, and depressive, and so is her new album, "Lullaby For Liquid Pig". But actually, that's what her fans want to hear from her! So if you're in a very melancholic mood, and if you're not in a hurry, Lisa's songs come in best. She uses very few notes in her songs, but these notes are placed geniously. Her arrangements are unconventional, sometimes even weird, but that's what makes them interesting. Her voice is hoarse and fragile, but that's what ideally matches her lyrics. So the bottom line is: If you are searching for something special, and if you're not looking for pop or dance music, and if you're not in a suicidal mood, get this CD, and you will experience very honest and deep emotions in a musically package that's very different from the usual ones. Really!

Well, I hope she's alright, because for an artist well-acquainted with, dark, unsettling music, this seems to be coming from a hitherto unreached depth that is breathtaking and more than a bit chilling. On other albums she has underscored some of the darker aspects with black humor and the odd rock n roll touch, but this... this is an entirely different animal. Pared straight to the bone musically and lyrically, and sung with such purity and desperation it just makes you want to do something to HELP somehow, to lighten the weight of the world from her shoulders. The title track and "It's Party Time" are among the strongest, bleakest, most fragile states of mind ever captured in music, and "From A Shell" comes from a place where angels drop from the sky and dissolve on impact. Staggeringly painful, beautiful in its horrible resignation. Again, I really hope she's alright. Buy this and everything else she's ever recorded.

Descriptions of Lisa's music don't always contain flattering adjectives, but often words more along the lines of "gloomy," "dark," or "depressing." I think that's unfair to this talented and under-appreciated artist, who admittedly has her own unique approach. Her music reminds me of an ancient calliope playing slowly and beautifully in an abandoned amusement park occupied only by ghosts. On the new Liquid Pig disc, Ms. Germano delivers a dozen quietly striking tunes in her breathy vocal style. It often sounds almost like she's whispering the lyrics rather than singing them, but it has the same effect as a teacher who deliberately talks softly to force students to listen. With Lisa you don't want to turn away because you might miss something.

One aspect of the music I really appreciated, but one worth warning people about, is her use of various weird sound effects to create atmosphere for the songs. On "All The Pretty Lies," for instance, a quaint and lovely piano part is accompanied by a distant sawing, scraping metallic noise that accents the piece and makes it sound even lonelier. "Pearls" has an almost normal rock beat, but vibrates with a slightly distorted guitar and fuzzy percussion that sounds kind of like white noise, except channeled into the song's dreamy vibe.

My only complaint (very minor) was the lack of printed lyrics in the CD booklet, but I didn't care too much about that because the music is so fine.

When I think of an underappreciated artist, I think of Lisa Germano. Her ability to find a rapturous melody is seemingly effortless. You can practically swim in her melodic texturing. 'Liquid Pig' is my 5th album by her, and I hope there are 5 more ahead. This is a very controlled, focused recording. The 12 songs are like unified vignettes. They gracefully flow from one to the other. On earlier albums by Lisa, she occasionally broke the hazy mood with a little quirky sense of humor, such as optimistic talks with her cat or brief circus like instrumentals. Not here. The warm, melancholic mood holds from start to finish, making it a great album for a lonely night of stargazing.
Someone else amoung these reviews denounced 'Liquid Pig' and wrote on about one of Lisa's live settings. Geez, maybe she should have worn her Bob Mackie gown. Although I'm sure Lisa appreciates the support slot, I imagine the music of Daniel Lanois is a little more for the masses than hers. What may have sounded like droning on and on may have been her trying to create atmosphere like this album. The busy minded probably won't get it. She's probably doing the best she can on little money. All in all, if you're prone to introspective periods or existential thinking, 'Liquid Pig' could be a comforting, understanding companion.

For many years Lisa Germano has been making some really good music for a criminally small audience . Her rich orchestrations , dreamy lyrics ( " push me down / i don't care / i'm as light as air " ) and haunted weary voice were never mtv material - it was all too personal , deep and frankly affecting for today's mainstream media . Her latest offering " Lullaby For A Liquid " is actually about her drinking experiences .

On the dizzy , slow " Into The Night " she goes on about how it's like to " losing the feel ... / lost the need for real things " while " It's Party Time " feels like a sweet hangover and sounds anything but a party track . It's all dark and beautiful really but it's when she focuses more on her female , sensitive side that Germano truly touches greatness . Like on " From A Shell " , a glacial , magic ballad with a breathtaking perfomance where the artist descibes a situation " with the gods all gone and the souls making sounds " .

It's so unfair that while Germano has trouble finding a proper budget to release her records , singers like Sarah McLachlan who write the same type of music with surely less edge sell millions . The lady is sensual in the most genuin way . She's one overlooked talent that everyone who likes songwritting with a soul should discover .

Lisa Germano went under the radar after the relative commercial failure of her 1998 album Slide. Her deal with 4AD ended and she was minded to never make another record, instead working as a clerk at Book Soup in Hollywood, writing songs in her spare time.
Although she occasionally worked in a supporting role on projects with the likes of David Bowie and Neil Finn it was four years before she went into the studios to work on a new album of her own. Lullaby For Liquid Pig was the result, with her skewed humour, inimitable unique style and voice like a welcoming warm bath happily intact, and up there with the best of her work. Although her subject matter can be stark, the listening experience is far from depressing, just as listening to the blues can be uplifting, thanks to a high watermark of quality control throughout its 36 minutes

The original album is superb. If you don't have it, get it. It's honest, serious, intricate, melodic, and also completely charming. Whatever your taste, from opera to pop to doom metal, if you're serious about music, you'll at least appreciate Lullaby for Liquid Pig, and you'll probably love it.

I liked the extras CD much more than did the other reviewer. For instance, the raw, home recording version of the song "Liquid Pig" may be better than the album version. The standout, though, is the three song sequence of material from Germano's next album, In the Maybe World--immediate and passionate, but also somehow richer than the studio album versions. All the extra material is worthwhile; it hangs together; and it definitely adds to the original album.

If you are a fan, you shouldn't be disappointed. The lyrics & melodies are done in the same hauntingly yet, beautiful style Lisa has defined for herself over the years. I think the sounds and arrangements are by far her best to date. Sonically fabulous, get yer' headphones & enjoy!