Marcy Playground 1997 Album

Marcy Playground

This is nowhere close to a great album, but not near as disdainful as critics judged it when it was relevant. The group was essentially the brainchild of John Wozniak, who derived the name from the playground of an Minnesota alternative school he attended, and based a lot of the songs from personal experience. When the big single was the Violent Femmes-like "Sex and Candy", but with dumber references like "double cherry pie" and "disco lemonade", naturally critics were not impressed. Once the novelty of "Sex and Candy" wears off, there is substance here, mainly in that Wozniak deftly constructs a cutesy, yet deceptively dark-humored fantasy land which is far more than just one hit tune. "Saint Joe's On The School Bus" was a second hit at the time that goes unnoticed now, and has a more 80's alternative feel. Grunge, new wave, and old-school singer-songwriter folk share the bill in a roughly equal manner on this album, which is worth a few spins.