Vivian Girls
Studio album by
ReleasedMay 2008 (2008-05)
RecordedJanuary 2008
StudioCivil Defense League (Brooklyn, New York)
Genre
Length21:27
LabelMauled by Tigers
Vivian Girls chronology
Vivian Girls
(2008)
Everything Goes Wrong
(2009)
Singles from Vivian Girls
  1. "Wild Eyes"
    Released: 2008[1]
  2. "Tell the World"
    Released: 2008[2]

Vivian Girls is the debut studio album by American indie rock band Vivian Girls. It was released in May 2008 by the label Mauled by Tigers.[3]

After Mauled by Tigers' limited pressing of 500 LP copies quickly sold out, Vivian Girls was reissued on CD and LP by In the Red Records on October 7, 2008.[4] It was reissued again by Polyvinyl Record Co. in 2019, alongside its 2009 follow-up Everything Goes Wrong.[5]

Composition

Vivian Girls has been described by critics as an album of lo-fi[6][7] and noise pop[7][8] music. Paste's Henry Freedland said that it exhibits Vivian Girls' fusion of art punk and shoegaze-pop,[9] while NME noted the presence of garage rock elements.[10]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic80/100[11]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[8]
The A.V. ClubA−[12]
Blender[13]
NME8/10[10]
Paste8.0/10[9]
Pitchfork8.5/10[14]

Vivian Girls was met with favorable reviews from music critics.[11] The album holds a score of 80 out of 100 on the review aggregation website Metacritic, based on 15 reviews.[11] NME stated that "between the omnipresent slabs of reverb, the trio flip between harmonic garage rock, gloomy melodies and twee-Birthday Partyisms".[10] Jesse Darlin' of Plan B praised the songs' melodies as "all hard and spiky on the outside and gooey on the inside, like tough girl music should be."[15]

At the end of 2008, Vivian Girls was named the ninth best album of the year by Rough Trade,[16] while Pitchfork listed it as the year's 16th best album.[17]

Legacy

Despite being polarizingly received when it was released, Vivian Girls has since grown in status. In a 10th-anniversary retrospective, Stereogum's Patrick D. McDermott dubbed it "22 of the messiest and most influential minutes" in noise pop's late-2000s resurgence. Finding the album "hip and timeless", McDermott stated that it introduced lo-fi as an aesthetic and the importance of atmosphere and production to "millennial indie kids". He also credited it with giving listeners something different beyond the "pastoral-sounding boy bands and Coachella-band psych" common in indie music at the time.[7]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Vivian Girls (Katy Goodman, Cassie Ramone and Frankie Rose)

No.TitleLength
1."All the Time"1:57
2."Such a Joke"1:43
3."Wild Eyes"1:55
4."Going Insane"1:29
5."Tell the World"3:36
6."Where Do You Run To"3:15
7."Damaged"2:06
8."No"1:19
9."Never See Me Again"1:41
10."I Believe in Nothing"2:26
Total length:21:27

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.[18]

Vivian Girls

Additional personnel

Charts

Chart (2008) Peak
position
US Heatseekers Albums (Billboard)[20] 44

References

  1. Sendra, Tim. "Vivian Girls". AllMusic. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  2. "Vivian Girls – Tell The World – 7"". Woodsist. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  3. Caramanica, Jon (August 21, 2008). "Punks, but Really Romantics at Heart". The New York Times. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  4. Stosuy, Brandon (August 1, 2008). "New Vivian Girls – 'Where Do You Run To'". Stereogum. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  5. "Vivian Girls announce Memory, first new album in 8 years out 9/20 – listen to 'Sick' now + fall tour dates". Polyvinyl Record Co. July 16, 2019. Retrieved June 19, 2021.
  6. Welsh, April Clare (April 12, 2011). "Album Review: Vivian Girls – Share the Joy". Drowned in Sound. Archived from the original on March 5, 2021. Retrieved March 3, 2021.
  7. 1 2 3 McDermott, Patrick D. (October 1, 2018). "Vivian Girls Turns 10". Stereogum. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  8. 1 2 Sendra, Tim. "Vivian Girls – Vivian Girls". AllMusic. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
  9. 1 2 Freedland, Henry (October 14, 2008). "Vivian Girls: Vivian Girls". Paste. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
  10. 1 2 3 "Vivian Girls: Vivian Girls". NME. 2008.
  11. 1 2 3 "Vivian Girls by Vivian Girls Reviews and Tracks". Metacritic. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  12. Heller, Jason (January 13, 2009). "Vivian Girls: Vivian Girls". The A.V. Club. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
  13. Sheffield, Rob (November 2008). "Vivian Girls: Vivian Girls". Blender. Vol. 7, no. 10. p. 78. Archived from the original on October 4, 2008. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
  14. Granzin, Amy (October 3, 2008). "Vivian Girls: Vivian Girls". Pitchfork. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
  15. Darlin', Jesse (October 2008). "Vivian Girls: Vivian Girls". Plan B. No. 38. p. 71.
  16. "Albums of the Year". Rough Trade. p. 1. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved February 21, 2010.
  17. "The 50 Best Albums of 2008". Pitchfork. December 19, 2008. p. 4. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
  18. Vivian Girls (liner notes). Vivian Girls. Mauled by Tigers. 2008. MBT 004.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  19. 1 2 3 Lindsay, Cam (September 28, 2008). "Vivian Girls". Exclaim!. Retrieved March 3, 2021.
  20. "Vivian Girls Chart History (Heatseekers Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved October 20, 2018.
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