Ruth and Martin’s Album Club, is a Tumblr where ‘the guest chooses a critically acclaimed album they’ve never listened to’, explain why they’ve never listened to it, listen to it three times, and then ‘tell us whether it was worth it or not.’
On this weeks installment, J.K. Rowling reviews Violent Femmes’ 1983 self-titled debut Violent Femmes.
What did she think about the album after a first listen? “I put on the Violent Femmes and hear a catchy acoustic guitar riff and I think, this is great! I’m going to love them! I’ll get a Violent Femmes T-shirt, buy the entire back catalogue and bore everyone rigid with my new obsession! But then the vocalist kicks in and I have an immediate, visceral response of ‘no, scratch everything, I hate this.’ ”
It took a few listens to warm up to it, but after listening to it for a third time, “I realized that I loved the album. Before I knew it, I was listening to it over and over again.”
She goes on to say, “The Violent Femmes, I read, were ‘one of the most successful alternative rock bands of the 1980s, selling over 9 million albums by 2005.’ Yes, the Violent Femmes ended up in that whorehouse called success, and you know what? It only makes me love them more.”
The Related Rabbit Hole
