Excerpts from a Love Circus
Studio album by Lisa Germano
Released	September 9, 1996
Genre	Alternative rock, dream pop, folk rock
Length	51:52
Label	4AD
Producer	Paul Mahern, Lisa Germano, Bill Bottrell
Lisa Germano chronology
Geek the Girl (1994) Excerpts from a Love Circus (1996) Slide (1998)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Entertainment Weekly	B+[2]
Los Angeles Times	[3]

Excerpts from a Love Circus is an album by the American musician Lisa Germano.^[4][5] It was released in 1996 by 4AD.^[6]

In the United Kingdom, "Small Heads" was released as a single in August 1996, just prior to the album. Around this same time, Germano recorded an album with the members of Giant Sand under the name OP8; although originally commissioned by 4AD, the label passed on the album (Slush), which led to its release on Thirsty Ear Recordings in February 1997. In North America, a remix of "I Love a Snot" by Tchad Blake was serviced to radio and retail in April 1997. Another Germano collaboration of sorts was released later that year, when another Excerpts track, "Lovesick", was remixed by drum & bass producer The Underdog (aka Trevor Jackson, later of Playgroup), and released as a single on his Output Recordings label.

Critical reception

Entertainment Weekly wrote that "Germano adds trembling violins to other aural oddities, like the plinking of a toy piano and the purring of her cat ... Those quirky elements help lighten the troubled lullabies."^[2] The Tucson Weekly thought that "Germano's music is dreamy, with her haunting violin and keyboards coloring the drifty, mercurial arrangements."^[7]

Track listing

1. "Baby on the Plane"
2. "A Beautiful Schizophrenic/"Where's Miamo-Tutti?" by Dorothy"
3. "Bruises"
4. "I Love a Snot"
5. "Forget It, It's a Mystery"
6. "Victoria's Secret/"Just a Bad Dream" by Miamo-Tutti"
7. "Small Heads"
8. "We Suck"
9. "Lovesick"
10. "Singing to the Birds"
11. "Messages from Sophia/"There's More Kitties in the World than Just Miamo-Tutti" by Lisa and Dorothy"
12. "Big, Big World"
13. "Fun Fun Fun for Everyone (Acoustic)" *
14. "Tom, Dick and Harry" *
15. "Messages from Sophia (Instrumental)" *

All songs were written by Lisa Germano.

Three of the album's tracks also contain interludes which feature home recordings of two of Germano's cats, Dorothy and Miamo-Tutti. Contrary to the track listing shown on the album's packaging, "Where's Miamo-Tutti?" actually appears during the first seventeen seconds of track 3. "Just a Bad Dream" begins at the 4:19 mark of track 6, and "There's More Kitties in the World than Just Miamo-Tutti" takes up roughly the last minute of track 11.

A later edition of Excerpts, re-released by 4AD in 1999, contained tracks 2-4 from the "Small Heads" single added to the end as bonus tracks (denoted above with *), but have since been removed for subsequent editions. The song "Tom, Dick and Harry" was also performed by Germano on the OP8 album Slush.

"Small Heads", "I Love A Snot" and "Lovesick" all received considerate airplay on College & Alternative radio in America as well as the UK.

Personnel

Kenny Aronoff, Bill Bottrell, Dane Clark, Dorothy, Emily Goethals, Glenn Hicks, John Hicks, Demian Hostetter, Mark Maher, Paul Mahern, Miamo-Tutti, Allana Redecki, Craig Ross, Josh Silbert, Jake Smith, John Strohm, Thor, Wyndham Wallace. (Individual credits were not listed.)

Credits

• Produced by Paul Mahern and Lisa Germano, except track 6 produced by Bill Bottrell with assistant engineer Mark Cross.
• Recorded and mixed at Echo Park Studio in Bloomington, IN, except track 6 recorded at Toad Hall Studio in Pasadena, CA.
• Mastered by Greg Calbi at Masterdisk.
• Art direction by Paul McMenamin at v23.
• Photography by Matthew Welch.
• Portrait by Michael Wilson.

References