Concentrated

Includes my BIG hits from existing records and a few demos.

Concentrated is a self-released “best of” compilation, assembled in 2002 and sold directly to fans through Lisa Germano’s official website and PO box for $13 per disc. Curated by Robin Hurley, the former Worldwide Managing Director of 4AD, the collection spans Lisa’s recorded output from 1991 through 1998, drawing from five studio albums, one EP, and one guest compilation appearance. Two tracks, early demo versions of “Lullaby for Liquid Pig” and “Paper Doll,” were making their first appearance on any release. Concentrated was made available alongside a companion compilation, Rare, Unusual or Just Bad Songs, as part of the same limited self-release initiative.

Background

By 2002, Lisa had been largely absent from the music industry for several years. Following the release of Slide in 1998 and the end of 4AD’s US distribution deal with Warner Bros., she was dropped from the label—a development she later described as difficult but not entirely unexpected, telling Under the Radar: “With each record we put out I sold less and less and less so it was kind of obvious.” In the years that followed, she worked full-time at West Hollywood’s Book Soup while continuing to write music at home, uncertain whether she would ever make another record.

It was during this period that Robin Hurley—who had overseen 4AD’s US operations since 1991 and served as Worldwide Managing Director until the label’s ownership transition in 1999—re-entered her life, this time as her manager. Hurley had left 4AD for Rhino Entertainment following founder Ivo Watts-Russell’s retirement, and he saw commercial potential in Lisa’s catalog that her previous releases had never fully exploited. As Lisa explained in her 2003 Under the Radar interview: “He chose stuff that was more on the poppy side because when he first became my manager we wanted to take things to TV and give some things to film and so this is what he put together for that.”

The result was Concentrated—a 21-track collection framed as a career overview but shaped with an eye toward accessibility and licensing potential. Lisa distributed it herself, directly to fans who sent requests to her PO box, bypassing the traditional label and retail infrastructure entirely.

Themes

As a compilation rather than an original work, Concentrated does not develop new thematic territory, but Hurley’s sequencing choices reveal a particular editorial perspective on Lisa’s catalog. By leaning toward what Lisa called her “poppier” songs, the compilation foregrounds her melodic directness and her capacity for hook-writing, qualities that can be obscured when her albums are heard in full alongside their more experimental, noise-textured passages. Tracks like “Sexy Little Girl Princess,” “Cry Wolf,” and “Way Below the Radio” sit comfortably alongside the two unreleased demos, giving the set a slightly forward-looking quality despite being rooted in older material. Lisa herself noted that the experience of hearing these songs together was unexpectedly enjoyable: “I enjoyed listening to this because I never listen to the poppy songs so it was kinda fun.”

---

No.	Title	Length
1	Screaming Angels Dancing in Your Garden	2:55
2	Energy	3:40
3	The Dresses Song	3:12
4	Way Below the Radio	4:11
5	Sexy Little Girl Princess	3:49
6	Lovesick (Underdog Mix)	4:35
7	Miamo-Tutti	1:29
8	Lullaby for Liquid Pig (demo)	3:22
9	Just Geek	2:47
10	Cry Wolf	4:14
11	Cowboy	4:13
12	If I Think of Love	3:07
13	The Mirror is Gone	2:45
14	Victoria’s Secret	4:19
15	Singing to the Birds	4:23
16	Simply Tony	2:08
17	Messages from Sophia	3:55
18	Wood Floors	4:00
19	Paper Doll (demo)	2:20
20	The Darkest Night of All	4:45
21	Late Night Dresses	4:26

Packaging & Design

Concentrated was manufactured on CDr and distributed without commercial retail packaging. The cover features minimal hand-assembled design typical of the self-released format, reflecting the lo-fi, direct-to-fan spirit of the release. There is no printed booklet or insert beyond the front image and traycard, which features the track listing and a link to Lisa’s now defunct website. Lisa often personalized small messages on the disc to thanks fans for purchasing.

Personnel

Concentrated draws from across Lisa’s 4AD-era catalog, with tracks sourced as follows:

Tracks 1 and 16 from On the Way Down From the Moon Palace (Major Bill, 1991)
Tracks 2, 3, 7, 11, and 20 from Happiness (4AD, 1994)
Tracks 4, 12, and 18 from Slide (4AD, 1998)
Tracks 5, 9, and 10 from Geek the Girl (4AD, 1994)
Track 6 from the Lovesick (Underdog Remix) single (Output Recordings, 1997)
Track 13 from the Red Hot + Bothered compilation (Red Hot Organization, 1994)
Tracks 14, 15, and 17 from Excerpts From a Love Circus (4AD, 1996)
Track 21 from the Inconsiderate Bitch EP (4AD, 1994)
Tracks 8 and 19 are early demo versions of “Lullaby for Liquid Pig” and “Paper Doll,” subsequently re-recorded for Lullaby for Liquid Pig (Young God Records, 2003)

Compiled by Robin Hurley.

Critical Reception

Concentrated was not reviewed by mainstream or independent music press at the time of its release, as it was distributed exclusively through Lisa’s personal website with no label support, press campaign, or retail availability. Its existence was known primarily within Lisa’s existing fanbase for a small window of time, and it circulated quietly in the years that followed.

That said, the compilation has accumulated a small but dedicated following among collectors, and discussion of it tends to surface in the context of Lisa’s broader rediscovery.

Lisa herself offered the most candid assessment in her 2003 interview with Under the Radar, expressing mixed feelings about the two unreleased demos included on the set: “I wish I could change now because they sound so much better — ‘Lullaby’ distorts because I had a really bad mix of it.” On the selection overall, she acknowledged that while Hurley’s pop-leaning curatorial choices didn’t fully reflect her own preferences—noting that her slower songs are her favorites—she found value in being reintroduced to a corner of her catalog she rarely revisited.

Related Releases

---