This is the fourth and final part of Lisa Germano on 4AD, an ongoing series looking at the work of the singer/songwriter from 1994-1998.

Read Part 1
Read Part 2
Read Part 3

Dance around loneliness
Be a silly mess
It’s OK

—Lisa Germano, “Wood Floors”

“When you’re so used to feeling dead all the time, it takes a while to get used to feeling alive. That’s kinda why it’s called Slide, because you’re wanting to be in an upper place but you keep falling back down because that’s what you’re used to.”

Lisa Germano, Magnet Magazine, August 10, 1998

I’m not sure if Slide is the best or the worst introduction to Lisa Germano’s music. On the one hand, it’s easily the most accessible, much of that thanks to Tchad Blake’s glossy, radio-ready production. On the other hand, that same production, and the Los Angeles studio it was largely recorded in, smooths out the edges in her music, eliminating a lot of the idiosyncrasies that once made it unique. For that reason, it’s my least favorite of the records Germano released through 4AD. That said, it’s a sliding scale—it’s still a very good record that showcases glimmers of, dare I say, optimism, from the notoriously pessimistic Germano.

Slide, art direction and design by Paul McMenamin at V23

While 4AD surely didn’t expect Germano’s music to reach the top of the charts, they still expected it to at least recoup the costs of recording. Slide would be the last push, with Blake being brought in to helm the recording sessions at The Sound Factory in Hollywood, California. It was a valiant effort. Critics praised the record, and Germano sounds as self-assured as ever, even borderline hopeful, but it reportedly sold a scant 6,000 copies, and her relationship with 4AD came to an end. About 4ADs fateful decision to drop her from the label, Germano said in interview to Julene Snyder in April 1, 2003:

“They’re still my friends, but I understood. They’ve got to pay the bills.”

Germano may have seen the writing on the wall during the recording of Slide. The opening track, and only song released as an official single, “Way Below the Radio,” is a tongue in cheek, self-effacing ode to being unmarketable. Sarcastic or not, she sings about “having fun way below the radio,” where nobody is tuning in. “I forgot, give me some personality” she sings on the chorus. “I am here…going nowhere,” an honest assessment of her inability to break into the mainstream, but in true Germano fashion, she’s not too upset about it.

CD single for “Way Below the Radio” (Radio Edit)

It’s amusing to hear Germano so convinced of her outsider status in rock ‘n roll, as she was coming off one of her closest brushes with what most would call “success” (at least in the sphere of alternative rock in the mid-90s). Between Excerpts from the Love Circus and Slide, Germano, along with members from Calexico and Giant Sand, recorded an EP worth of tracks together, a collaboration inspired by Lee Hazlewood’s cowboy songs and the American Southwest. The band, dubbed OP8, gave 4AD the option to release the record. 4AD declined. The band recorded additional songs to bring it to long-playing length, and put out the album through the somewhat experimental leaning Thirsty Ear Records. It was a critical hit, and brought a new spotlight to Germano’s music. The Hazlewood/Sinatra cover song, “Sand,” even got the music video treatment, with a B&W, mostly live band performance. It’s nothing fancy, but captures the supergroup in their comfort zone, live, playing music together. 

“If I Think Of Love,” one of the three songwriting contributions Germano brought to the record was popular enough that she re-recorded it for Slide. As much as I love the fuzzed out, ramshackle production on the OP8 record, I prefer the clean, romantic sound that Blake creates on Slide. Everything builds toward that borderline anthemic chorus, which isn’t overdone, but carries one of Germano’s most downright pretty melodies. Maybe for that reason it’s one of Germano’s most frequently covered songs, with everyone from NY electropoppers Burnside Project to Magnetic Fields collaborator LD Beghtol (RIP) putting their own spin on her sparsely worded ode to broken-heartedness. Another song from the record, the very typically dark Germano piano ballad, “Wood Floors,” was also covered by Poor Rich Ones vocalist William Hut on his solo debut, Doolittle. 

It’s clear that Slide reached a lot of ears, from Brooklyn, New York to Bergen, Norway, but it didn’t translate into new opportunities for Germano. Instead, it led to a brick wall. After being dropped by 4AD, Germano, who had moved to L.A. to record Slide, decided to stay. She got a bookstore job and did session work for musicians around town, but seemed content to be operating outside of record label mandates and a pressure to deliver hits. She still communicated with her fans online, and even self-released a best of/odd and ends collection of songs called Concentrated in 2002, but no new music came until the well-received rebirth of Lullaby For Liquid Pig in 2003.

Songs like “Guillotine,” from Slide would predict the sparse, dream-like direction her music would take after leaving 4AD. Most of it being home recorded and then subsequently re-mixed and energized through the —at the time—new and exciting Pro Tools recording software. For better or worse, as of this writing, Germano has not released a collection of songs that sound as rich and polished as those on Slide. I don’t imagine she ever will. It was a rare flicker, a moment in time when the sun seemed to briefly come out from behind the clouds for the unique artist that is Lisa Germano. Who am I to blame the sun for shining? 

Oh my, my
Giving into beauty

—Lisa Germano, “Turning Into Betty”