Track Listing

1. Poppies
2. Sex and Candy
3. Ancient Walls of Flowers
4. Saint Joe on the School Bus
5. Cloak of Elvenkind
6. Sherry Fraser
7. Gone Crazy
8. Opium
9. One More Suicide
10. Dog and His Master
11. Shadow of Seattle
12. Vampires of New York

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12704 in Music
• Released on: 1997-02-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.com
Marcy Playground's John Wozniak was one of those kids who, like Charlie Brown, got a bag of rocks for Halloween instead of candy. Fortunately, Wozniak used his childhood ostracism as the inspiration and fuel to write charmingly quirky pop songs. Wozniak woos the listener with his smooth, low-key vocals and lighthearted delivery of weighty, somewhat twisted, and darkly humorous songs. "Poppies" gives a cheery history lesson on the origins of the international opium trade, while "Elvinkind" and "Dog and His Master," with its chorus of "One little, two little, three little idiots," could become new, if slightly warped, children's standards. And then there's the country feel of the chartbuster, "Sex & Candy," with the sing-along refrain "I smell sex and candy here." One of the qualities of an exceptional band is the ability to tell a story through their music; something that Marcy Playground succeed at beautifully. --Gail Worley

Customer Reviews

under rated
this CD is amazingly solid all the way through. Sex and Candy is only the 3rd best song on here in my opinion. I have worn a hole through this Cd in the last 7 years.

60's British-style psychedelia by a 90s American band
The US, in the 60s, tended to a harder-edged psychedelia than the UK. When it tried for a British feel it generally got it wrong. In short - perhaps because of Vietnam - the Americans never got whimsy to work. It tried (cringe-makingly) and failed, just as most British bands failed with "hard" psychedelic music. And then we got, several decades later, Marcy Playground channelling the spirit of Barrett-era Pink Floyd. And doing it brilliantly (while somehow combining some REM-like elements with the 60s vibe).

The single, "Sex and Candy" is a cool song, but there are more interesting songs on the album, including the haunting closer "Vampires of New York". This isn't Paisly Underground, but real psychedelia. If you like "Nuggets" then this is for you. If you don't like "Nuggets" then you probably have no taste and so won't like it at all.

An amazing musical breakthough.
Marcy Playground is one of the few CD's, along with Bush's Sixteen Stone, Nirvana's Unplugged in New York, and Stone Temple Pilots' Core, that I can listen from start to finish without skipping a song. Each and every song, although at times short, is very unique and has a great calm and soothing feel to it. This CD has so much more to offer than the radio hits "Sex & Candy", "Saint Joe on the School Bus", and "Sherry Fraiser". Those songs are all great, but my personal favorites are "A Cloak of Elvinkind" and "Poppies". "Ancient Walls of Flowers" is superb as well. I cannot recommend this CD enough. Well worth the purchase.