Viva! La Woman

Warner Bros. signed Cibo Matto after their self-titled EP caught the label's attention. The tracks reflected the band's live performances, with pre-recorded samples and loops. Yuka Honda has expressed regret that she did not stand up for herself when others discouraged her from replacing the samples and loops with new recordings.[3]

The album's songs all mention food in some way, sometimes as a metaphor. Yuka Honda explains: "Food is something you can't escape. It's there every day." The band would frequently go to restaurants after rehearsal, and "Cibo Matto grew out of those restaurant times."[4]

The music on Viva! La Woman has been described as "urban trip-hop".[5] The album's lyrical content balances humorous lyrics in "Beef Jerky", "Birthday Cake", and "Know Your Chicken" with abstract, often emotional narrative-style wording in "Apple", "Sugar Water", and "Artichoke", as well as overall pop music fare in "White Pepper Ice Cream", "Theme", and "Le Pain Perdu". Several tracks feature the group's well-known references to food, primarily present on this release.

"Theme", unusual among Cibo Matto's discography for its length, is a track which features a relatively normal song sung in English with several Italian words before shifting into instrumental passages and leading into a second half that contains entire verses in Japanese and French.

The album booklet contains illustrations and lyrics accompanying most of the songs. The only tracks for which the booklet features no lyrics are "The Candy Man", a cover of a song from the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (presumably for copyright reasons; the song also has all lyrical instances of Willy Wonka changed to the candy man) and "Jive", a hidden track with a length of 18 seconds consisting of Miho Hatori tapping her thighs, for which she is also credited.

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[6]
Entertainment Weekly	A−[7]
Los Angeles Times	[8]
Pitchfork	9.1/10[9]
Rolling Stone	[10]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[11]
Select	4/5[12]
Spin	9/10[13]

Viva! La Woman was acclaimed by music critics.[14] Michele Romero of Entertainment Weekly described Cibo Matto as "sonic savants who go nutty mixing disparate ingredients, like avant-garde trumpet with bossa nova bass lines and sugary non-sequitur lyrics," summarizing the album as "kitschy club music, as kooky and lovable as Hello Kitty."[7] Select writer Andrew Male remarked on the album's playful lyrics, while noting that the band is "far more musically adept than yer average guitar 'n' shouting comedy act".[12] Spin named it the tenth best album of 1996[15] and later ranked it as the 90th best album of the decade.[16] The album also spent six weeks at the top of CMJ's college radio charts.[17] Some listeners perceived the album as a novelty, "partly because of the cutesy-pie assumptions attached to Asian women in pop and partly because of the band's propensity for writing songs about food", much to the band's chagrin.[18]

In a retrospective review, AllMusic's Heather Phares praised Cibo Matto as "fresh and funky", and said of the album, "Viva! La Woman is an innovative and catchy mix of eclectic samples and stream-of-consciousness lyrics. [...] A diverse and entertaining album, Viva! La Woman leaves the listener hungry for more of their crazy food for thought."[6]

All tracks are written by Cibo Matto (Miho Hatori and Yuka Honda), except where noted.

From the liner notes of Viva! La Woman:

(Where possible, the credits here have been adapted from humorous accreditations in the album's booklet, which are often made to sound sexual or food-related)

Cibo Matto

• Miho Hatori – singing, howling, moaning, sighing, thigh tapping, booklet illustrations
• Yuka Honda – programming, keyboards, beach guitar, coughs, engineer (4 and 8), mixing

Additional musicians

• Dougie Bowne – percussion
• Dave Douglas – trumpet
• Josh Roseman – trombone
• Jay Rodriguez – saxophone
• Rick Lee – horns
• Marc Anthony Thompson – vocal sounds ("oral titillation")
• Bernie Worrell – organ

Recording personnel

• Tchad Blake – producer, engineer (except 4 and 8), mixing ("beneath low end sonics")
• Bob Ludwig – mastering
• John Paterno – assistant engineer
• Mike Piersante – assistant engineer and mixer
• Jesse Habkell – assistant engineer and mixer
• Mike Lee – assistant at Electric Lady Studios
• Mitchell Froom – assistant ("heavy duty shepherding")

Design and photography personnel

• Mike Mills – art direction and design
• Garland Lyn – design assistance
• Dave Aron – back cover photo
• Lance Acord – basement photo (CD tray)
• Thomas Thurnauer – cover illustration

Additional personnel

• Tim Carr – A&R ("and street dancing")
• Simon B. and Grace Jean – management for Tortured Management
• Richard Grabel – "on point"