By Sarra Manning
Melody Maker | November 1994
It’s a man’s, man’s man’s world and shit happens. Rape gets colloquialised as bad sex. Poor broken Dolores Haze is culpable for Humbert’s atrocities because she is a “daemon trapped in a child’s body.” And, as Germano writes in the explanatory sleeve-notes, “Geek the girl still tried to believe in something beautiful and dreams of still loving a man in hopes that he can save her from her shit life… ha ha ha what a geek!” In 1994, a bad man is still better than no man and you might as well love your symptoms, ‘cos no one else will.
“Geek the Girl” is a dull, scarlet travelogue into the depths of cancerous relationships and all the lousy lovers that inhabit them. Interspersed throughout by macabre piano breaks that belong to a silent movie of the haunted house genre, this album lacks the fleeting glimpses of optimism that broke up the seeping sadness of “Happiness.” It’s only the last track, “Stars,” that offers any hope that Geek will triumph in the arms of her man, and a quick glance at the sleeve notes soon dispels that myth. This macabre irony the lachrymal lynchpin of “Geek the Girl.”
With the same no bullshit honest as Daniel Johnston, Germano lifts her work into the realms of the confessional, where there’s good acoustics if nothing else. “A Psychopath” is backed by a panic-stricken phone call to Emergency Services while Germano sings in a matter-of-fact voice of being terrorised by an ex-lover in an empty house. During the lethargic agony of “Cancer of Everything,” the line, “This is a happy song,” interrupts the litanies of woe, as if to suggest just the opposite.
Pianos trace the tracks of malcontent lovingly, the guitars muted and delicate as if the music’s a soft blanket that wraps up the spiky spite of the songs. And, apart from some threatening strings that swoop in occasionally, what stands out about “Geek the Girl” is the utter despair of the lyrics (“There’s no answers here / There’s no feeling / All those fucked up people,”) and Germano’s voice—a fragile, throaty whisper one breath away from tears or a childish whimper because no one would ever hurt a little girl. Would they?
“Geek the Girl” is a difficult album that pushes the listener away with its truculent tone just as it pulls them closer with whispered secrets. You may think it says nothing about the clear glass of your life but beware! Geek the girls live in us all.
Featured Image: Lisa Germano (Photo: Andrew Catlin)
