Lovesongs for Underdogs

Updated on Nov 19, 2023

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Length 45:04 Artist Tanya Donelly Label 4AD		Lovesongs for Underdogs (1997) Beautysleep (2002) Release date 9 August 1997 Genre Alternative rock

Released August 9, 1997 (1997-08-09) Producers Tanya Donelly, Wally Gagel, Gary Smith Similar Beautysleep, Whiskey Tango Ghosts, This Hungry Life, Star, King

Lovesongs for Underdogs is the solo debut album by American singer Tanya Donelly, who had formerly recorded with Throwing Muses, The Breeders, and Belly. It was released on August 9, 1997. Two singles were released for promotion of the album. "Pretty Deep" was released in July 1997, while "The Bright Light" was released in October 1997. In the U.S both 4AD released singles were released in two parts, each including 2 newly released B-Sides. "Pretty Deep" featured "Spaghetti", "Morna", "These Days" and "Influenza". "The Bright Light" featured "Bury Me", "How Can You Sleep?", "Life On Sirius" and "Moon Over Boston". A music video for each single was produced and aired on Vh1 and MTV2. Both videos differed highly in creative and artistic direction from previous Belly videos and exclusively featured Tanya solo, in movie like settings. "Pretty Deep" and "The Bright Light" enjoyed heavy airplay on Triple A radio stations in the U.S Northeast. "Lovesongs For Underdogs" peaked at #36 on the Official UK Albums Chart for 2 weeks upon its release. The singles, "Pretty Deep" and "The Bright Light" peaked at #55 and #65 (the latter) for 2 weeks each upon their 2 CD Single releases.

Track listing

All songs by Tanya Donelly except where noted.

"Pretty Deep" – 4:22
"The Bright Light" – 3:21
"Landspeed Song" – 3:34
"Mysteries of the Unexplained" – 4:52
"Lantern" – 3:10
"Acrobat" (Donelly, Dean Fisher) – 3:30
"Breathe Around You" – 2:56
"Bum" – 3:09
"Clipped" – 4:01
"Goat Girl" – 2:16
"Manna" – 5:26
"Swoon" – 4:27

Personnel

Tanya Donelly – guitar, keyboards, vocals

Dean Fisher – acoustic guitar, bass guitar, percussion, accordion, keyboards

Wally Gagel – bass, percussion, keyboards, drum machine

Rich Gilbert – guitar, accordion, bass, keyboards, saw

Stacy Jones – drums

David Lovering – drums

Hilken Mancini – background vocals

David Narcizo – drums

Chris Toppin – background vocals

Jonathan Williams – electric guitar

Production

Producers: Tanya Donelly, Wally Gagel, Gary Smith

Engineers: Matthew Ellard, Wally Gagel, Dan McLoughlin

Assistant engineers: Jesse Henderson, Suzanne Kapa, Kelly Wohlford

Mixing: Wally Gagel, Paul Q. Kolderie, Sean Slade

Mixing assistant: Dave Kirkpatrick

Mastering: Brian Lee

Drum Technician: Carl Plaster

Arrangers: Tanya Donelly, Wally Gagel

Design: Chris Bigg

Photography: Andrew Catlin

Charts

Album – Billboard (North America)

The album was very popular in the Northeast, hitting Billboard's Northeast Heatseekers chart, and remaining for 4 weeks.

Songs

1Pretty Deep4:23
2The Bright Light3:21
3Landspeed Song3:34

References

Lovesongs for Underdogs Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA