Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

Bricks Are Heavy

 
Album Review: Bricks Are Heavy

  • Artist: L7
  • Rating: StarStarStarStarHalf Star
  • Release Date: April 14, 1992
  • Total Time: 37:28
  • Type: Contains explicit content
  • Genre: Rock

Review

Though they hailed from sunny L.A., L7 became the poster girls for grunge in 1992, with the meteoric success of their third album, Bricks Are Heavy. While their previous efforts had sounded sloppy and uneven, Nevermind producer Butch Vig helped the girls obtain a tight, compact sound on Bricks, pushing them to focus on their songwriting to boot. After all, great albums need great songs, and that's exactly what you have here. Mosh-pit anthem "Everglade" (sung by bassist Jennifer Finch) will simply knock you on your ass, and big single "Pretend We're Dead" is so good that its tough swagger harks back to seminal bad girl anthems like Joan Jett's "I Love Rock'n'Roll," Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," and even the Go-Go's -- well, maybe not the Go-Go's. The sardonic "Diet Pill" tackles female compulsions with clever irony, and even when they let their mega-riffing take over on such full-throttle stomps as "Wargasm," "Mr. Integrity," and "Shitlist," L7 still manage to imbue their lyrics with humor and substance. Inevitably, a few songs (especially "Slide") tend to push the Nirvana envelope just a tad, but Vig's involvement aside, these four ladies had been doing this kind of thing for as long as the Seattle trio. L7's crowning achievement, Bricks Are Heavy sadly proved to be an impossible act to follow, and the band gradually faded into obscurity thereafter. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track TitleComposersPerformersTime
Wargasm Donita Sparks L7 (2:40)
Scrap (Lyrics) Donita Sparks L7 (2:53)
Pretend We're Dead Donita Sparks L7 (3:53)
Diet Pill Donita Sparks L7 (4:21)
Everglade (Lyrics) Jennifer Finch L7 (3:18)
Slide Suzi Gardner, Donita Sparks L7 (3:37)
One More Thing (Lyrics) Jennifer Finch L7 (4:07)
Mr. Integrity Donita Sparks L7 (4:06)
Monster Suzi Gardner L7 (2:56)
Shitlist Donita Sparks L7 (2:55)
This Ain't Pleasure (Lyrics) L7 (2:42)

Credits

L7 (Producer), L7 (Main Performer), Paul Ryan (Bongos), Mr. Colson (Engineer), Jennifer Finch (Bass), Jennifer Finch (Vocals), Suzi Gardner (Guitar), Suzi Gardner (Vocals), Steve Marker (Engineer), Demetra "Dee" Plakas (Drums), Demetra "Dee" Plakas (Vocals (Background)), Donita Sparks (Guitar), Donita Sparks (Vocals), Butch Vig (Producer), Butch Vig (Engineer), Butch Vig (Mixing), Howie Weinberg (Mastering), Elizabeth Hale (Art Direction), Vicki Berndt (Photography), Jeff Price (Art Direction), Randall Martin (Artwork), Pauli Ryan (Bongos), Arlan E. Helm (Photography), Damion Romero (Photography)
Search unanswered questions...
Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics
Wikipedia: Bricks Are Heavy
Top
Bricks Are Heavy
Studio album by L7
Released April 14, 1992
Recorded 1991 & 1992
Genre Grunge
Length 37:28
Label Slash Records
Producer L7 & Butch Vig
Professional reviews
L7 chronology
Smell the Magic
(1990)
Bricks Are Heavy
(1992)
Hungry for Stink
(1994)

Bricks Are Heavy is the third album by the Los Angeles band L7, released in April 1992 through Slash Records. Backed by the single "Pretend We're Dead", the album became a breakthrough hit and the band became the "poster girls" of grunge music.

The album was released shortly after grunge had broken into the mainstream with the surprise success of Nirvana's Nevermind. In July 1992, the song "Pretend We're Dead" gained popularity among American rock radio stations, where it received regular airplay. By late August, the album had reached #1 on Billboard's Heatseekers album chart, and two weeks later it peaked at #160 on the Billboard 200.

Musically the album is heavier and dirtier than the band's previous recordings. While the band retained its punk and hardcore punk roots, there was more emphasis on heavy metal than before. It was produced by Butch Vig, who is renowned for his work with bands such as Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, and later Garbage.

Contents

Track listing

  1. "Wargasm" (Sparks) – 2:40
  2. "Scrap" (Sparks, Gurewitz) – 2:53
  3. "Pretend We're Dead" (Sparks) – 3:53
  4. "Diet Pill" (Sparks) – 4:21
  5. "Everglade" (Finch, Ray) – 3:18
  6. "Slide" (Gardner, Sparks) – 3:37
  7. "One More Thing" (Finch) – 4:07
  8. "Mr. Integrity" (Sparks) – 4:06
  9. "Monster" (Gardner) – 2:56
  10. "Shitlist" (Sparks) – 2:55
  11. "This Ain't Pleasure" (Gardner, Caivano) – 2:52

Personnel

Chart positions

Album
Year Chart Position
1992 Billboard Heatseekers 1
1992 Billboard 200 160
Singles
Year Single Chart Position
1992 "Pretend We're Dead" Billboard Modern Rock Tracks 8

Other success

The song Pretend We're Dead was featured on the video games Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Rock Band 2.

The song "Shitlist" was featured in the Oliver Stone's 1994 film Natural Born Killers and its soundtrack.

Accolades

External links


 
 

 

Copyrights:

Album Review. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Bricks Are Heavy" Read more