''Marcy Playground'' is the debut studio album by American

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band Marcy Playground, released on February 25, 1997, on EMI. It was reissued later that year on October 7 on

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...

with a large amount of promotion for the single " Sex and Candy," which became the band's breakthrough single, spending a then-record 15 weeks at No. 1 on the ''Billboard'' Modern Rock Tracks chart. The album also includes the singles " Saint Joe on the School Bus" and " Sherry Fraser" both of which received moderate radio and MTV2 airplay.

Critical reception

''Marcy Playground'' garnered a mixed reception from

music critic '' The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of m ...

s. Ronan Munro of ''

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'' said that, "What is surprising is how enjoyable this window on Wozniak's soul is: his lazy drawl and gentle melodies coating his misery in a pop sheen... the mood remains resolutely downbeat but the angst is not imposing." James P. Wisdom of ''

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'' stated that ''Marcy Playground'' was "the most soothingly mellow and pleasant thing ehad heard in a long time."

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and former senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of multiple artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance ...

felt that "only a handful" of the album's tracks are as memorable as "Sex and Candy", while adding that "those moments are what make ''Marcy Playground'' a promising, albeit imperfect, debut."

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 ...

graded the album as a "dud", indicating "a bad record whose details rarely merit further thought." Chuck Eddy of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' heavily panned the album for its subpar musicianship, saying that it "sets icky new standards for commercial-post-alternative callowness." Dan Weiss of '' LA Weekly'' deemed it the twelfth-worst album of the 1990s, opining that aside from the singles "Sex and Candy" and " Saint Joe on the School Bus," the album is "folksy, opiate-obsessed bullshit".

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes. Marcy Playground * John Wozniak – vocals, guitar * Dylan Keefe – bass ("Saint Joe on the School Bus", "A Cloak of Elvenkind", "Gone Crazy", "Dog and His Master", "The Shadow of Seattle") *Dan Rieser – drums ("Saint Joe on the School Bus") Additional musicians *Glen Braver – bass ("Poppies") *Jared Kotler – bass ("Sex and Candy", "Sherry Fraser", "One More Suicide" and "The Vampires of New York"), drums (all except "Saint Joe on the School Bus") *Edgar Mills – bass ("Ancient Walls of Flowers" and "Opium") *Jen Handler – cello ("One More Suicide") Production *John Wozniak – production *Jim Sabella – engineering *Ken Gioia – engineering, mixing *Marcy Playground – mixing * Greg Calbi – mastering Additional personnel *Henry Marquez – art direction *Robert Laverdiere – package design *James Wojcik – cover and color photo *Chris Black – black-and-white photo

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

External links

Official Myspace PageOfficial WebsiteOfficial Facebook
{{Authority control 1997 debut albums Marcy Playground albums Capitol Records albums