Excerpts From a Love Circus

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In control of yourself or so it seems and you go backwards… habit… and give your control to someone else cause you LOVE THEM SO MUCH… ha ha… of course they dump you heartlessly.

Following the harrowing vulnerability of Geek the Girl, Lisa Germano’s follow-up was the decidedly more welcoming Excerpts from a Love Circus, released by 4AD in August 1996.

Like its title suggests, Love Circus chronicles the emotional roller coaster of a relationship, and deepened Lisa Germano’s reputation for creating emotionally complex, genre-defying music and her penchant for sarcasm. The album introduced a dreamier and more playful sound, though the sorrow and surrealism remained intact.

The music has carnival-like quality to it; it’s rich in texture, with whispered vocals, toy piano, layered violin, and field recordings—complete with contributions from her cats Dorothy and Miamo-Tutti, who provide meows and purrs (and are deservedly credited as performers.).

Love Circus is an album that exists in its own strange, personal universe, but is quintessentially a Lisa Germano record from start to finish.

Released: 1996
Label: 4AD
Format: CD, LP
Country: US, UK
Availability: Moderate

No.	Title	Length
1	Baby on the Plane	3:58
2	A Beautiful Schizophrenic / “Where’s Miamo-Tutti” by Dorothy	4:53
3	Bruises	4:21
4	I Love a Snot	4:10
5	Forget It, It’s a Mystery	3:24
6	Victoria’s Secret / “Just a Bad Dream” by Miamo-Tutti	5:31
7	Small Heads	4:02
8	We Suck	4:05
9	Lovesick	3:32
10	Singing to the Birds	4:25
11	Messages from Sophia / “There’s More Kitties in the World Than Just Miamo-Tutti” by Lisa and Dorothy	4:57
12	Big Big World	4:36

Additional Versions

Three years after its initial release, 4AD reissued the album and included the Small Heads EP to the original track list. Only the back cover of the album changed, featuring the revised track listing.

Personnel

Musicians:
Kenny Aronoff, Bill Bottrrell, Dane Clark, Dorothy, Lisa Germano, Emily Goethals, Glenn Hicks, John Hicks, Demian Hostetter, Mark Maher, Paul Mahern, Miamo-Tutti, Allana Redecki, Craig Ross, John Silbert, Jake Smith, John Strohm, Thor, Wyndham Wallace

All songs recorded and mixed at Echo Park Studio in Bloomington, Indiana and at Lisa’s home with the exception of “Victoria’s Secret,” which was recorded and produced by Bill Bottrell at Toad Hall Studio in Pasadena, California.

Art direction & design by Paul McMenamin
Photography by Matthew Welch
Portrait by Michael Wilson

All songs written by Lisa Germano.
Published by Songs of PolyGram International, Inc., Door Number One Music, Emotional Wench Music (BMI)

Mastered by Greg Calbi at Masterdisk.
Management by Tommy Manzi

Critical Reception

Excerpts From a Love Circus received largely positive reviews from critics.

After the wrenching but rewarding Geek the Girl, Lisa Germano widens her focus and brightens her outlook on Excerpts From a Love Circus. Of course, Love Circus is a Lisa Germano album, but it’s a slightly lighter take on her vulnerable, folky dream-pop: only she could make the refrain “Bruises, bruises, bruises” equally catchy and disturbing.

As the title suggests, Excerpts From a Love Circus collects vignettes about hating the one you love and loving the one you hate; once again, Germano captures awkward, abstract feelings with her dreamy arrangements, hooky songwriting and unflinching lyrics. Passive-aggressive love songs like “I Love a Snot” sport flourishes like toy pianos and tablas, and incisive comments like “A Beautiful Schizophrenic”‘s “I know you like my bad side/I love you like my good side.” Germano’s dark, self-effacing sense of humor surfaces on “Victoria’s Secret,” which answers the question “What is Victoria’s Secret?” for once and all: “She says ‘You are ugly/I am pretty/Your man wishes/You looked like me.'”

Musically, Excerpts from a Love Circus is her most grounded and eclectic work since Happiness, spanning the intricate, spooky pop of “Baby on the Plane,” the folky “Forget It, It’s a Mystery,” the menacing, Eastern-influenced “Lovesick,” and the jangly “Small Heads.” Germano closes the album on a gentle, hopeful note, suggesting with a trio of ballads — “Singing to the Birds,” “Messages From Sophia” and “Big Big World” — that finding and losing love isn’t the worst thing in the world, as long as you don’t lose yourself in the process.

It’s not quite as gripping as some of her other albums, but Excerpts From a Love Circus is still a genuine, thoughtful album and a welcome addition to Germano’s body of work.

— Heather Phares, AllMusic