Violent Femmes’ self-titled debut is my #14 album of 1983, and a good example of the kind of album for which I have a lot of affection even though I never play it.
I discovered this album, and band, in college almost a decade after they first became popular. The alternative music scene at that point was leaning toward grunge, but the folk-punk aesthetic of this record still felt just right.
Hit single ‘Blister in the Sun’ remains a classic, while songs like ‘Add It Up’ and ‘Gone Daddy Gone’ are lesser known but have the same anarchic spirit, deadpan vocals and appealing melodies. My favorite song from this album is closing track ‘Good Feeling’ (today’s SOTD), the record’s only ballad. It has such an earnest delicacy, which is an odd match for bandleader Gordon Gano’s creaky vocals.
I was surprised to see that Violent Femmes released nine more albums after this one, including one just last year (they took a 16-year hiatus between 2000 and 2016).
For me, they started and ended with this album.
Won’t you stay with me
Just a little longer?
It always seems like you’re leaving
When I need you here
Just a little longer
Oh, dear lady
There’s so many things
That I have come to fear
A little voice says I’m going crazy
To see all my worlds
Disappear
Vague sketch of a fantasy
Laughing at the sunrise
Like he’s been up all night
Ooh, slipping and sliding
What a good time
But now I have to find a bed
That can take this weight
Good feeling
Won’t you stay with me
Just a little longer?
Y’know, it always seems like you’re leaving
When I know the other one
Just a little too well
Oh, dear lady
Won’t you stay with me
Just a little longer?
Y’know it always seems, always seems like you’re leaving
When I need you here
Just a little longer
Meet Me In Montauk 
My knowledge of the Violent Femmes begins and ends with “Blister in the Sun,” which was one of Amy’s favorites.
I don’t know the album at all but completely associate “Blister in the Sun” with my freshman year at UF, when I was introduced to it by the roommate of a high school friend and, yes, immediately became obsessed.