''Pristine Smut'' is an album released by American alternative pop band the Murmurs; it was released on June 24, 1997, by

MCA MCA may refer to: Astronomy * Mars-crossing asteroid, an asteroid whose orbit crosses that of Mars Aviation * Minimum crossing altitude, a minimum obstacle crossing altitude for fixes on published airways * Medium Combat Aircraft, a 5th gene ...

. The album was produced by

Larry Klein Larry Klein (born March 17, 1956) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is based in Los Angeles. He began his career as a bassist, playing with jazz artists Willie Bobo, Freddie Hubbard, Carmen McRae, Joe Henderson, Bobby ...

and

k.d. lang Kathryn Dawn Lang (born November 2, 1961), known by her stage name k.d. lang, is a Canadian pop (music), pop and country music, country singer-songwriter and occasional actress. Lang has won Juno Awards and Grammy Awards for her musical perfor ...

and all tracks on the album were written by The Murmurs members Heather Grody and

Leisha Hailey Leisha Hailey (born July 11, 1971) is an American actress and musician known for playing Alice Pieszecki in the Showtime Networks series ''The L Word'' and '' The L Word: Generation Q''. Hailey first came to the public's attention as a musician ...

. The track "Squeezebox Days" featured on the soundtrack to the 1997 film '' All Over Me''.

Recording

The album's co-producer

had started dating band member

in 1996, a year before the album was recorded. In a 2000 interview, Lang reflected "We idn'twant to get involved in each other's art ..My producing of the Murmurs was just to help them out because I had a studio and they needed tracks done. And it was fun for me because I always wanted to produce a girl group like that." Its working title was ''The Ballad of Pristine Smut''. The track "Sleepless Commotion" was written by Heather Grody, about the murder of her mother, who was killed by her husband.

Release and reception

The album was poorly promoted by the band's label,

MCA Records MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc., which later became part of Universal Music Group. Pre-history MCA Inc., a powerful talent agency and a television production company, entered the recorded music business in 1962 wit ...

, who were going through staff changes at the time. In a review for

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 ...

gave ''Pristine Smut'' a star rating of four out of five. He noted that the album had a rhythm section added to the "folk pop" of its predecessor, 1994's ''Murmurs''. He praised producers Klein and Lang for steering the band towards "adult alternative rock" but said that the sound was "clean and pristine ... shined and polished and now ready for radio". He said, however, that the songs on ''Pristine Smut'' were stronger than those of the previous album.

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 ...

gave the album an A− rating and praised it as an improvement on their previous album. He said of ''Pristine Smut'', "not since Liz Phair's "Flower", Janet's "Throb", and Madonna's ''Erotica'' has pop softcore attended so sweetly to the erogenous zones." In a review for ''

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'', Barry Walters also noted the "rockin' rhythm section" of the second album. He described the tracks produced by Lang as "punk and "Nirvana-esque" and the ones produced by Klein as "like Suzanne Vega before dance beats discovered her". It was nominated for an award for Album of the Year at the Gay & Lesbian American Music Awards in 1998.

Track listing

#"Big Talker" #"I'm a Mess" #"Toy" #"Underdog" #"About Nothin'" #"Genius" #"Squeeze Box Days" #"Don't Lie" #"Sucker Upper" #"Country Song" #"Sleepless Commotion"

Personnel

;Music *Teddy Borowiecki — keyboards * Heather Grody — guitar, electric guitar, vocals *

— guitar, vocals *

— bass, electric guitar,

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

* Greg Leisz — mandolin, pedal steel * Jerry Marotta — drums *

Ben Mink Benjamin Mink (born January 22, 1951) is a Canadian songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer best known as a longtime collaborator of Canadian singer k.d. lang. He plays several string instruments, notably the guitar, violin, and the m ...

— guitar, strings *Sheri Ozeki — bass *Sherri Solinger — drums ;Production *Larry Klein — arranger, producer *

— producer *Ben Mink — arranger *Tony Phillips — engineer, mixing *Marc Ramaer — engineer *Skip Saylor — engineer, mixing *Eddy Schreyer — mastering ;Design *Todd Gallopo — art direction, design *Dave Jensen — photography *Tim Stedman — art direction, design

References

{{Authority control 1997 albums The Murmurs albums Albums produced by Larry Klein MCA Records albums