Violent Femmes – Violent Femmes

Deluxe expanded 3LP + 7" boxset coming soon in March

Brilliant pressing! I got a copy that is in a bit of rough shape, but still, the detail comes out great with this pressing. There’s just something missing with the digital master that doesn’t capture the same magic. If somehow the tapes are randomly found, I hope it gets a full analog repress.

You definitely want the analog 1st pressing or the 1983/1984 re-issue. The master tapes have been long gone. Anything after the the 1st re-issue is a digital format.

A perfect album and a perfect pressing. Absolutely my most played in recent months.

This is one of the best albums of ALL TIME!!! Sound on the original pressing is outta sight! Timeless Masterpiece!

Is it just me or does Bud Powell need some song writing credit?

Dig that crazy sound man...in a word, I'll choose spectacular. That is to say, spectacular in every way, from the moment the band started writing the songs, and all the way through the recording and mastering. I love the way it was produced, from the arrangements of the songs, to the timbre of the instruments and the separation in tone with equalization. The limited use of reverb and such gives me the feeling that the band is here in my living room playing for me. When I do hear obvious reverb, I get the impression it's from the source, not in the mix. It has a wide dynamic range, particularly in the snare drum, and vocals where it's most valuable for me, as well as in the overall mix. I am using a filter in the low mid at -3db for my preferred listening / audio system. There is some interesting panning involved, and again...I love the tones. I particularly like the bass tones, although everything is mixed and blended much to my liking.
To be clear, I'm referring to the 1983 first press on two tone label. I haven't heard other pressings recently, but I don't recall the sonic quality being so freggin awesome when I listened to this in my youth...and I didn't have this particular release then. I can however recall that the content and contributions from the band were epic, and all these years later, it's just an amazing to me.

I am going to review this album as it is not about the many forms that it has being released in. What other albums hold up to the greatest that it was when it came out in the eighties, I think only maybe The Cars first album or Van Halens (Though it was really late seventies it was released at) made a big impact. That raw sound that The Replacements, DB's or even R.E.M. took from to interject that kind of emotion into their songs that the main stay of arena rock wasn't getting at made it a really big boost to american music. It was the link that put back the garage rock of the bands from sixties from The Hombres, The Shadows of The Knights, and all of the D.Y.I. bands from that era in to the for-front and made it that this band could be your life.