''Palomine'' is the debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by Dutch

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

band

Bettie Serveert Bettie Serveert is a Dutch indie rock band. The name translates to "Bettie Serves", which is the title of a book written by Dutch tennis player Betty Stöve, who made it to the Wimbledon Ladies Singles final in 1977. Formation The band is c ...

. It was released on 2 November 1992 by Brinkman Records and

Guernica Guernica (, ), officially Gernika () in Basque, is a town in the province of Biscay, in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, Spain. The town of Guernica is one part (along with neighbouring Lumo) of the municipality of Gernika-Lumo ...

, and by

Matador Records Matador Records is an independent record label, with a roster of mainly indie rock, but also punk rock, experimental rock, alternative rock, and electronic acts. History Matador was created in 1989 by Chris Lombardi in his New York City ap ...

in the United States the following year.

Release

''Palomine'' was released on 2 November 1992 by Brinkman Records in

Benelux The Benelux Union (; ; ; ) or Benelux is a politico-economic union, alliance and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighbouring states in Western Europe: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The name is a portma ...

and by the

4AD 4AD is a British record label owned by Beggars Group. It was founded in London under the name Axis Records by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent in 1980 as an imprint of Beggars Banquet Records. The name was changed to 4AD after the release of th ...

subsidiary label Guernica in the United Kingdom. Upon its release, the album charted at number 43 in the Netherlands. In the United States, it was issued by

on 7 January 1993. Three singles were released from ''Palomine'': "Tom Boy" and "Palomine" in 1992, the second of which reached number 122 on the UK Singles Chart, and "Kid's Allright" in 1993. On 7 July 2023, ''Palomine'' was reissued by Matador for the album's 30th anniversary. The reissue reached a new peak of number 30 in the Netherlands, while also reaching number 177 on the Belgian

Flanders Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, la ...

albums chart.

Critical reception

'' Q'' reviewer Martin Aston commented that ''Palomine'' "is produced with a bar band intimacy that amplifies the sparse, roaming spaces at the heart of the music", and that "Carol van Dijk has a vibrant, husky voice, capable of plaintive, precocious passion and gutsy ferverishness".

Stephanie Zacharek Stephanie Zacharek is an American film critic at ''Time'', based in New York City. From 2013 to 2015, she was the principal film critic for ''The Village Voice''. She was a 2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist in criticism. In February 2018, invited to s ...

, writing for ''

CD Review ''CD Review'' (formerly known as ''Digital Audio'' and ''Digital Audio and Compact Disc Review'') is a discontinued American monthly magazine that specialized in reviewing albums and audio electronics, especially compact discs. The magazine was ...

'', said that as a vocalist, van Dijk "taps into" the subtleties of her "austere" lyrics and "brings home, in words, the sorts of things that are otherwise best communicated by a wry smile or the flutter of eyelashes." ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

''s Jim Greer stated that the album juxtaposes "Van Dijk's suspiciously accurate

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

-inflected langour with the slow, intense sloppiness of the band to form one glorious mess of sound", while also finding Bettie Serveert's songwriting remarkably mature for an indie rock band. In ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'',

Jon Pareles Jon Pareles (born 1953) is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of ''The New York Times''.Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, forming the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield. Since the begi ...

and the

garage-rock Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock music that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The style is ...

scruffiness of his collegiate-rock heirs, like Dinosaur Jr." ''Palomine'' placed at number 15 in ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

''s 1993 year-end

Pazz & Jop Pazz & Jop was an annual poll of top musical releases, compiled by American newspaper ''The Village Voice'' and created by music critic Robert Christgau. It published lists of the year's top releases for 1971 and, after Christgau's two-year abse ...

critics' poll.

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

, the poll's creator, awarded it a " two-star honorable mention" and remarked, "by the time the tunes grow on you, you'll be wondering why the songs never get where they're going".

Track listing

Notes * "Brain-Tag" is omitted from the LP edition of the album. The UK LP edition, released by Guernica, instead included a bonus 7" disc featuring "Brain-Tag" on side one and "Get the Bird" and "Smile" on side two.

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes. Bettie Serveert * Herman Bunskoeke – bass * Carol van Dijk – guitar, vocals * Berend Dubbe – drums * Peter Visser – guitar Production * Bettie Serveert –

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

* Berend Dubbe – mixing * Frans Hagenaars – production, mixing * Edwin "Hank" Heath – production, mixing * The Masters – mastering Design * Diederik van der Donk – photography * Roel Siebrand – cover design

Charts

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1992 debut albums Bettie Serveert albums 4AD albums Matador Records albums