''Nancy Boy'' is the second album by the American band

Nancy Boy "Nancy Boy" is a song by British alternative rock band Placebo, released on 20 January 1997, as the fourth single from their debut self-titled album, released on Hut Records. As with their first single " Come Home", the single edit is a re-re ...

, released in 1996. The original title was ''Automaker''. It was a commercial failure. A video was produced for "Johnny Chrome & Silver", which was also a radio hit in several countries. "Deep Sleep Motel" was released as a single;

Roman Coppola Roman François Coppola (born April 22, 1965) is an American director, screenwriter, producer and the son of Francis Ford Coppola and Eleanor Coppola. For the 2012 film ''Moonrise Kingdom'', he and co-writer Wes Anderson were nominated for the A ...

directed the video. The band supported the album with a North American tour.

Production

The album was produced by

Shel Talmy Sheldon Talmy (born August 11, 1937) is an American record producer, songwriter and arranger, best known for his work in the UK in the 1960s with the Who, the Kinks and many others. Talmy arranged and produced hits such as "You Really Got Me" ...

; the band wanted to create an album that didn't resemble grunge music. "W.R.I.P." is an homage to the radio station

WRIF WRIF (101.1 FM) is a commercial active rock radio station licensed in Detroit, Michigan and serving Metro Detroit as well as bordering city Windsor, Ontario, Canada. The station is currently owned by Beasley Media Group. WRIF is a grandfathered ...

. Guitar player Jason Nesmith sings lead on "Colors".

Critical reception

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' wrote that "the music, swollen with synthesisers and tinny guitar, renders the lyrics even more spoiled-brattish than they already are." ''

The Indianapolis Star ''The Indianapolis Star'' (also known as ''IndyStar'') is a morning daily newspaper that began publishing on June 6, 1903, in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. It has been the only major daily paper in the city since 1999, when the ''Indianap ...

'' praised the "vivacious hooks and pop melodies modeled after '70s glam-rockers David Bowie, T-Rex and the Sweet." The ''

Waikato Times The ''Waikato Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Hamilton, New Zealand and owned by media business Stuff Ltd. It has a circulation to the greater Waikato region and became a tabloid paper in 2018. The newspaper has won the title of Ne ...

'' concluded that the band has "got impeccable breeding, a great concept, but not enough new ideas to really do the damage." ''

The Record The Record may refer to: Music * ''The Record'' (album), a 1982 studio album by the hardcore-punk band Fear * The Records, an English power pop band * '' Their Greatest Hits: The Record'', a 2001 greatest-hits album by the pop-music group Bee Ge ...

'' determined that the band "takes its cue from Blur's retro-friendly smash of a couple years ago, ''Parklife'', with lots of Bowie-isms and stylistic flourishes." The ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' admired Nesmith, and wrote that the album is "an affectionate homage, delivered with heart and spirit, and enough sense of perspective to avoid both pretension and camp." ''

City Pages ''City Pages'' was an alternative newspaper serving the Minneapolis–St. Paul metropolitan area. It featured news, film, theatre and restaurant reviews and music criticism, available free every Wednesday. It ceased publication in 2020 due to a ...

'' stated that Nancy Boy "bridges and celebrates those times when men wanted to look like women, and everyone seemed to want to be robots (hence synthpop, breakdancing, and bad man-made fabrics)."

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 ...

wrote that "Nancy Boy melds a glamorous, witty image to some fun, concise pop songs."

Track listing

References

{{reflist 1996 albums Sire Records albums Albums produced by Shel Talmy Romo