Personal Best (Team Dresch album)

Personal Best
Studio album by Team Dresch
Released January 1995
Recorded August 1994
Studio Avast! in Seattle, Washington
Genre Punk rock, queercore
Length 24:14
Label Candy Ass, Chainsaw
Producer John Goodmanson, Team Dresch
Team Dresch chronology
Hand Granade
(1994)Hand Granade1994		 Personal Best
(1995)		 Captain My Captain
(1996)Captain My Captain1996

Personal Best is the debut studio album by the American queercore band Team Dresch. It was released in January 1995 by both Candy Ass Records and Chainsaw Records.

Recording and release

Personal Best was produced by John Goodmanson and the band and recorded at Avast! in Seattle, Washington from August 12 to August 16, 1994.[1] As the band's debut album,[2] it was released in January 1995 on singer and guitarist Jody Bleyle's label Candy Ass Records and bassist Donna Dresch's label Chainsaw Records.[3][4] The album's title and cover are a reference to the 1982 lesbian-themed film of the same name.[5]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[4]

Johnny Histon of Spin praised the album's LGBT lyrical themes, stating that they had never been explored before in rock music. He concluded, "Team Dresch knows that simply being itself and making great music is a political act. On Personal Best they do both."[5]

Retrospectively, Jason Ankeny of AllMusic declared the album is a "call to arms" that "explodes on contact", saying: "Of all the punk records to come out of the 1990s, Personal Best comes closest to actually recapturing the sheer passion and rage which originally spawned the movement two decades earlier".[4] He praised the band's all-encompassing fusion of the dual emotional and polemical issues felt within the LGBT community, as well as how the band "never put their politics ahead of their songs — each of these ten tracks is airtight, with melodies as blistering as the lyrics".[4] The Washington Post writer Chris Richards called Personal Best "a fiery, all-but-forgotten punk masterpiece that sealed the gap between Sonic Youth's pop leanings and Superchunk's noisier fare."[6]

Track listing

  1. Fagetarian and Dyke – 2:45
  2. Hate the Christian Right! – 2:35
  3. She's Crushing My Mind – 1:42
  4. Freewheel – 1:39
  5. She's Amazing – 3:03
  6. Fake Fight – 3:07
  7. #1 Chance Pirate TV – 3:04
  8. D.A. Don't Care – 2:21
  9. Growing up in Springfield – 2:19
  10. Screwing Yer Courage – 1:39

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 Personal Best (CD booklet). Team Dresch. Seattle, Washington: Candy Ass Records and Chainsaw Records. 1995. CHSW11, CAR11.
  2. ↑ Brett Atwood (1995-05-06). "Queercore Punk Rock Ready To Face Market". Billboard. 107 (18): 74–75. Retrieved 2018-03-13.
  3. ↑ Natasha Stovall (March 1995). "Kicking Against the Pricks". Spin. 10 (12): 40. Retrieved 2018-03-13.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Jason Ankeny. "Personal Best". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 2012-06-21. Retrieved 2018-03-13.
  5. 1 2 Johnny Histon (February 1995). "Personal Best". Spin. 10 (11): 78–79. Retrieved 2018-03-15.
  6. ↑ Chris Richards (2007-06-22). "Team Dresch Digs Deep Into Its Playbook". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2018-03-13.
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