Breakfast with Girls

Infobox Album
Name = Breakfast with Girls
Type = Album
Artist = Self

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Released = July 1999
Recorded = 1997-1999
Genre = Rock
Length = 48:22
Label = DreamWorks/Spongebath Records
Producer = Matt Mahaffey, Ken Andrews
Reviews =
* Allmusic (2.5/5) [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:sx6jtr4ekl6x link]
* Pitchfork (6.5/10) [http://pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/21625/Self_Breakfast_with_Girls link]
Last album = "Brunch"
(1998)
This album = "Breakfast with Girls"
(1999)
Next album = "Lol-cats r here to"
(2000)

"Breakfast with Girls" is an album released by Self in 1999. This album was the highly anticipated major label follow-up to "Subliminal Plastic Motives". It wasn't well-received upon release, in part due to the delays in its release, but also because of the drastic change in style from its predecessor. Rather than the more rock-oriented approach of the debut, "Breakfast with Girls" saw Matt Mahaffey focusing more on the more experimental sides of his music. The change confused many fans, and the critical response wasn't much better. Most critics generally agreed that it was sonicly impressive, but many also accused him of spending too much time on production and not enough on the songwriting.

Working with a larger budget now that the band was on Dreamworks Records, the album featured an impressive roster of production credits, including: Richard Dodd, a Grammy-Award winning engineer; Hugh Padgham, a legendary British producer; and Ken Andrews, formerly of the band Failure. The sessions took place at Ocean Way Studios in Nashville, with additional tracking done at The Bennett House in Franklin, TN and Mahaffey's house in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Despite the lukewarm reception, many of the band's fans now consider "Breakfast with Girls" to be Self's masterpiece, citing its quirky songwriting and diversity as reasons. It contains a wide variety of styles ranging from industrial to funk to hip-hop to blues to jazz to orchestral pop. The album also contains a few slightly more conventional pop/rock songs. The album produced one single, the bouncy pop song "Meg Ryan", but like its parent album it didn't see much success. "Uno Song" and "Suzie Q Sailaway" were last minute additions to the album--both had originally been recorded for inclusion on Gizmodgery.

The album was also released on Vinyl with bonus tracks, and as a limited edition CD, which had a full 12 page booklet of artwork done by Brian Botcher. People who pre-ordered the album also received an EP, "Brunch", and there was a vinyl release of the album, with the Brunch EP and two other songs added as bonus tracks. Both of these items are now amongst the most highly sought after Self items, though all the bonus tracks are available online as downloads.

Track listing

# "End Of It All, The" – 4:53
# "Kill The Barflies" – 4:22
# "Meg Ryan" – 4:04
# "Suzie Q Sailaway" – 2:29
# "Uno Song" – 3:02
# "Paint By Numbers" – 3:13
# "What Are You Thinking!?" – 4:57
# "Sucker" – 4:24
# "Breakfast With Girls" – 3:18
# "Better Than Aliens" – 1:58
# "It All Comes Out In The Wash" – 4:06
# "Callgirls" – 3:34
# "Placing The Blame" – 5:05
# "Fliptop Box" - 3:45
# "You're a Drug" - 3:22
# "Happy Accidents" - 4:22
# "Rusted and Used" - 4:24
# "Crashing Parties" - 4:09
*Tracks 14-18 on vinyl edition only

External links