Marcy Playground is the debut studio album by American alternative rock band Marcy Playground, released on February 25, 1997, on EMI.[2] It was reissued later that year on October 7 on Capitol Records with a large amount of promotion for the single "Sex and Candy," which became the band's breakthrough single, spending a then-record 15 weeks at No. 1 on the BillboardModern Rock Tracks chart.
Marcy Playground garnered a mixed reception from music critics. Ronan Munro of NME said that, "What is surprising is how enjoyable this window on Wozniak's soul is: his lazy drawl and gentle melodies coating his misery in a pop sheen... the mood remains resolutely downbeat but the angst is not imposing."[5] James P. Wisdom of Pitchfork stated that Marcy Playground was "the most soothingly mellow and pleasant thing [he] had heard in a long time."[6]AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine felt that "only a handful" of the album's tracks are as memorable as "Sex and Candy", while adding that "those moments are what make Marcy Playground a promising, albeit imperfect, debut."[3]
Robert Christgau graded the album as a "dud",[4] indicating "a bad record whose details rarely merit further thought."[8]Chuck Eddy of Rolling Stone heavily panned the album for its subpar musicianship, saying that it "sets icky new standards for commercial-post-alternative callowness."[9] Dan Weiss of LA Weekly deemed it the twelfth-worst album of the 1990s, opining that aside from the singles "Sex and Candy" and "Saint Joe on the School Bus," the album is "folksy, opiate-obsessed bullshit".[10]
Track listing
All tracks are written by John Wozniak, except "Ancient Walls of Flowers" written by Wozniak and Sherry Fraser.
Dylan Keefe – bass ("Saint Joe on the School Bus", "A Cloak of Elvenkind", "Gone Crazy", "Dog and His Master", "The Shadow of Seattle")
Dan Rieser – drums ("Saint Joe on the School Bus")
Additional musicians
Glen Braver – bass ("Poppies")
Jared Kotler – bass ("Sex and Candy", "Sherry Fraser", "One More Suicide" and "The Vampires of New York"), drums (all except "Saint Joe on the School Bus")
Edgar Mills – bass ("Ancient Walls of Flowers" and "Opium")
