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

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band

Marcy Playground Marcy Playground is an American alternative rock band consisting of three members: John Wozniak (lead vocals, guitar), Dylan Keefe (bass), and Shlomi Lavie (drums). The band is best known for their 1997 hit "Sex and Candy". History Early yea ...

, released on February 25, 1997, on

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

. It was reissued later that year on October 7 on

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

with a large amount of promotion for the single "

Sex and Candy "Sex and Candy" is a song by American alternative rock group Marcy Playground, a single from their 1997 self-titled debut album. It is a post-grunge song with psychedelic elements. Lead singer John Wozniak was inspired to write the song after ...

," which became the band's breakthrough single, spending a then-record 15 weeks at No. 1 on the ''Billboard''

Modern Rock Tracks Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks (1988–2009) and Alternative Songs (2009–2020)) is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in ''Billboard'' magazine since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-played ...

chart. The album also includes the singles " St. Joe on the Schoolbus" 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 mus ...

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 ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'' 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 music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

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

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 well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

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

Chuck Eddy Chuck Eddy (born November 26, 1960) is an American music journalist. Life and career Chuck Eddy was born in Detroit, Michigan. After starting his journalism career with ''The Village Voice'' and ''Creem'', where he published one of the first nat ...

of ''

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

'' 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 ''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin, who served as president and editor until 1991. Voice Media Group sold the paper in late 2017 to Semanal Media LLC, whose paren ...

'' 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 John Keith Wozniak (born January 19, 1971) is an American musician best known as the lead singer, guitarist and songwriter of the band Marcy Playground. Early life Wozniak was born and raised in Minneapolis. He learned how to play the guitar ...

– lead vocals, guitar *

Dylan Keefe Dylan Keefe (born April 11, 1970 in Minneapolis, Minnesota) is the bassist and one of the founding members of the multi-platinum selling alternative rock band Marcy Playground. Marcy Playground Keefe, along with vocalist John Wozniak and drumm ...

– bass, backing vocals *Dan Rieser – drums, backing vocals Additional musicians *Glen Braver – bass on "Poppies" *Jared Kotler – bass on "Sex and Candy", "Sherry Fraser", "One More Suicide" and "The Vampires of New York", drums on all songs except "Saint Joe on the School Bus" *Edgar Mills – bass on "Ancient Walls of Flowers" and "Opium" *Jen Handler – cello on "One More Suicide" Production *John Wozniak – production *Jim Sabella – engineering *Ken Gioia – engineering, mixing *Marcy Playground – mixing *

Greg Calbi Gregory Calbi (born April 3, 1949) is an American mastering engineer at Sterling Sound, New Jersey. Biography Greg Calbi was born on April 3, 1949, in Yonkers, New York, and raised in Bayside, Queens, New York. He graduated in 1966 from Bisho ...

– 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
1997 debut albums Marcy Playground albums Capitol Records albums Works about suicide Songs about death

Suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

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