Review: RSD Picture Disc Edition of 'Violent Femmes'

Violent Femmes managed to find an unexplored nook of punk's potential when they filtered Buzzcocks sexual angst and attitude through a sieve of gauzy acoustic instruments. The sound was invigorating and fierce but also deeply textured and quite beautiful, spectacularly new yet antiqued. Plus bassist Brian Ritchie proved that punk and virtuosity were not mutually exclusive. Few debut albums are better or more fully realized than Violent Femmes, and forty years down the road, I still can't think of too many bands with the audacity to cop its "folk-punk" sound (although you could probably convince me that Belle & Sebastian would never have existed without "Good Feeling"). 

In celebration of its four decades, Violent Femmes is making its debut as a picture disc for Record Store Day 2023. An album with so many near-silent passages is not exactly ideal for picture disc presentation, since that particular vinyl novelty tends to emit a constant grinding sound on certain systems. This new RSD edition of Violent Femmes is no different on my system, and there's a touch of crackle too, but as picture discs go, this is definitely one of the best sounding ones I've heard. There are even relatively quiet passages where I didn't notice the noise at all, such as during the instrumental breaks in "Gone Daddy Gone". The music sounds warm and full-bodied over the drone. And really, picture discs are more for collectors than audiophiles, and with a cover as iconic and artful as that of Violent Femmes, it may be a natural for this niche medium after all.