Geek the Girl is the third studio album by American singer-songwriterLisa Germano. A breakthrough of sorts for her, it was released in 1994 by record label 4AD, just six months after the re-release of her previous album, Happiness. The album earned Germano the most praise she'd yet received from the press, becoming a critical favorite – including being featured as the 84th best album of the 1990s by the music magazineSpin.
Recording
Most tracks on Geek the Girl were originally recorded at Lisa Germano's home, giving the album an intimate and demo-like feel. Initially, she played all of the instruments on the record, but she then chose to re-mix four of the tracks with the help of Malcolm Burn, and added Kenny Aronoff on drums. All of the songs on the album are written by Germano, except for 'Just Geek' and 'Sexy Little Princess', which were co-authored by Malcolm Burn, and 'Cry Wolf', which she wrote with Jay Joyce. The album was produced by Germano and Malcolm Burn. It was mixed by Burn at Echo Park Studio in Bloomington, IN, and Kenny Aronoff's drum performances were also recorded there. The album was mastered at Masterdisk. Assistant engineers were Mark Hood, Pat Keating and Ron Black.
Content
Lisa Germano has said that "Geek the Girl is about this person who's not growing and is real stuck. Most of my records are about people who are stuck but they want to go somewhere else." Throughout the album, Germano uses a Sicilian folk tune called 'Frascilita' as an interlude between songs, as well as for the introduction to the album, on the first track 'My Secret Reason'. She introduced this piece to add some levity to the album, as she thought it "really needed some comic relief." The album deals with some dark subjects, including stalking, media censorship and inherent evil, and rape. The song 'A Psychopath', which samples a real 911 call where a woman confronts an intruder in her home, was written about her own experience with a stalker and the feeling of fear and helplessness that came from it. She obtained the 911 call recording from a rape centre, after originally encountering it in a documentary about violence. She was initially hesitant to use the recording, thinking it was "too intense", however ultimately decided it was something worth saying. Germano has said that making the song was scary and very upsetting, and that she had trouble sleeping after recording it.
Promotion
A music video for "Cry Wolf" was produced. The song was featured in the movie Rain and its soundtrack, years later. A promotional-only CD single for "Cry Wolf" was also released, featuring an edited version of the title track, remixed versions of "Cancer of Everything" and "Sexy Little Girl Princess", and the non-album track "The Mirror Is Gone".
Reception
Josef Woodard of Entertainment Weekly gave the album an A+ grade, calling it "one of the more haunting and enlightened projects of the year" and "Raw in sound and subject". In her retrospective review, Heather Phares of AllMusic wrote that " Geek the Girl, Lisa Germano found the perfect balance of her work's inherent contrasts. Geek the Girl's brave whispers hit on more emotional truths than the self-important screams of Germano's mid-'90s, women-in-rock contemporaries."
Legacy
The album was voted the 84th best of the 1990s by music magazine Spin. The album's title track was voted at number 91 in the same publication's list ofthe 100 best alternative rock songs.
