Spirit Phone
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| Spirit Phone | ||||
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| 📅 Released | February 29, 2016 | |||
| 🎙️ Recorded | 2009–2016 | |||
| ⏳ Length | 59:24 | |||
| 🏷️ Label |
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| Lemon Demon chronology | ||||
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| Neil Cicierega chronology | ||||
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Buy this album Spirit Phone or listen to it on amazon
Spirit Phone is the seventh album by Lemon Demon, a musical project created by American musician Neil Cicierega. Released in 2016, the album was Lemon Demon's first full-length album in eight years.[1] The album was released digitally through Bandcamp on February 29, 2016, and other streaming services the following day.[2] On July 10, 2018, independent label Needlejuice Records announced vinyl, CD and cassette releases, which shipped on October 21, 2018.[3][4]
All tracks were written, performed and recorded by Neil Cicierega. The album's cover art was created by Massachusetts comic book artist Ming Doyle; Cicierega's wife.[5] The song "Sweet Bod" features a guitar solo by Dave Kitsberg of Time Lord rock group Time Crash.[6] The album received generally positive reception and was largely successful, with the track "Touch-Tone Telephone" currently Lemon Demon's most played song on Spotify, surpassing "The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny".[7]
History[edit]
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Following the release of Lemon Demon's 2008 album View-Monster, Spirit Phone was worked on over the course of eight years.[8] Some songs from the album were released and performed during this time-span.
In July 2009, Neil Cicierega released an .mp3 of "Eighth Wonder" for download on lemondemon.com. The .mp3 was almost identical to the final version but had a different outro which was completely omitted in further releases.
In November 2009, Neil Cicierega released the music video for "Eighth Wonder",[9] a song about the cryptid Gef (with lyrics containing many of Gef's alleged quotations).[10]
In November 2010, an instrumental of "As Your Father I Expressly Forbid It" (slightly different from the final one) was released, presumably on the now-defunct Lemon Demon Forum.
In January 2011, an early version of "Reaganomics" was posted on the Lemon Demon Forum, which sounded completely different from the final mix.
In April 2012, another early version of "Reaganomics" was uploaded to Neil's second channel, along with a music video using clips of Ronald Reagan in his final film role The Killers. The music video was used in Youmacon 2012.[11] The song has been interpreted as a satirical critique of right-wing politics, told by two conflicting versions of Ronald Reagan (one voiced by samples of Reagan speaking, the other voiced by Cicierega).[12]
In July 2012, Cicierega posted two unused opening themes for the animated television series Gravity Falls. The first made it onto Spirit Phone as the bonus track "Gravitron",[13] and a lyric from the second was repurposed into the bonus track "Moon's Request".[14]
In October 2012, an early version of "Ancient Aliens" was uploaded to Neil's second channel, with a music video of servers clips including one from the History channel, also used in Youmacon 2012, however unlisted.
In November 2012, the songs "Cabinet Man", "As Your Father I Expressly Forbid It", "Ancient Aliens", and "Reaganomics" were performed live at anime convention Youmacon.[15] The song "Cabinet Man"—about a man who turns himself into a half-human arcade machine (partially inspired by urban legends like that of Polybius)[16]— itself inspired the creation of a functioning arcade game where players can play against a person who is physically inside the arcade cabinet, reported on by Gamasutra in 2019.[17]
In 2013, Neil released an early version of "Sweet Bod" on the Lemon Demon Forum, sounding a bit incomplete compared to the final version.
In October 2014, "When He Died" was released on Patreon, featuring an alternate intro and outro to the final album version.[18]
In June 2015, the instrumental track "Kubrick and the Beast" was cut from the album and released on Bandcamp.[19] However, the track ended up making it into the album as a bonus track.[20]
The album was released digitally on February 29, 2016, and received a physical release on vinyl, CD and cassette in October 2018 by Needlejuice Records.[8]
In January 2018, Cicierega released the song "Ivanushka" on his Patreon, a demo made circa 2009 which was adapted into the Spirit Phone track "Touch-Tone Telephone". The song is about the character "Ivanushka" from the 1964 film Jack Frost.[21]
Reception[edit]
Spirit Phone received generally positive reception, holding a score of 4/5 on AllMusic.[22]
Mashable included "Touch-Tone Telephone" and "Eighth Wonder" on their official 2019 Halloween playlist, calling "Touch-Tone Telephone" one of many "real gems".[23] Cultured Vultures called the horror-themed Spirit Phone "one of the wildest pop albums of the year".[24]
The album was the best-selling album on Bandcamp for the first week of its release.[25]
Track listing[edit]
All tracks are written, performed and recorded by Neil Cicierega, except where noted.[26]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Lifetime Achievement Award" | 6:07 |
| 2. | "Touch-Tone Telephone" | 4:43 |
| 3. | "Cabinet Man" | 4:23 |
| 4. | "No Eyed Girl" | 4:20 |
| 5. | "When He Died" | 4:34 |
| 6. | "Sweet Bod" (guitar solo by Dave Kitsberg) | 4:11 |
| 7. | "Eighth Wonder" | 4:42 |
| 8. | "Ancient Aliens" | 4:16 |
| 9. | "Soft Fuzzy Man" | 2:54 |
| 10. | "As Your Father I Expressly Forbid It" | 2:53 |
| 11. | "I Earn My Life" | 3:11 |
| 12. | "Reaganomics" | 3:32 |
| 13. | "Man-Made Object" | 3:38 |
| 14. | "Spiral of Ants" | 6:01 |
| Total length: | 59:24 | |
Bonus tracks[edit]
The album also contains 13 bonus tracks; consisting of demos, cut songs, and additional music. The following is the track listing of the deluxe bonus CD.[27] On digital services these tracks are arranged in alphabetical order and all subtitled "(Bonus Track)"; and "Sweet Bod (Demo)" is simply named "Sweet Bod".
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Crisis Actors" | 4:48 |
| 2. | "Redesign Your Logo" | 4:21 |
| 3. | "Pizza Heroes" | 1:31 |
| 4. | "You're at the Party" | 5:21 |
| 5. | "Angry People" | 4:54 |
| 6. | "Geocities" | 3:25 |
| 7. | "Angelfire" | 3:41 |
| 8. | "Gravitron" | 0:53 |
| 9. | "Moon's Request" | 2:21 |
| 10. | "Sweet Bod (Demo)" | 4:14 |
| 11. | "Cat Hacks" | 3:07 |
| 12. | "Cabinet Man (Demo)" | 2:41 |
| 13. | "Kubrick and the Beast" | 2:44 |
| Total length: | 1:43:25 | |
The vinyl and cassette releases contain the bonus tracks "Crisis Actors", "Redesign Your Logo", "Pizza Heroes", "You're at the Party" and "Angry People".[28] All physical releases also include a download card for the full album, along with album commentary by Cicierega, except for the CD release which already has the full album and commentary.[29]
References[edit]
- ↑ Cicierega, Neil. (February 26, 2016) "I haven't made a full-length for-sale album since 2008, so this is new to me" Twitter.com
- ↑ Cicierega, Neil. (February 29, 2016) "I think I'll release the bandcamp version a little early, after the stream! Everything else should go live by tomorrow morning" Twitter.com
- ↑ "Neil Cicierega Tumblr". Neil Cicierega Tumblr. Retrieved October 3, 2020.
- ↑ Needlejuice Records (October 21, 2018) "Spirit Phone LPs are shipping! Thank you for your patience, as there are a lot of orders to go through. There was a production delay with the Spirit Phone 2-CD set, and so orders containing the CD will ship during the beginning of November." Twitter.com
- ↑ "Ming Doyle Tumblr - Neil Cicierega: Spirit Phone". mingdoyle.tumblr.com. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
- ↑ "Spirit Phone, by Lemon Demon". Lemon Demon. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
- ↑ "Lemon Demon Spotify". Spotify. Retrieved 2021-06-27.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Lemon Demon's Spirit Phone Coming to LP, CD, and Casette". Needlejuice Records. 2018-07-10. Retrieved 2018-10-26.
- ↑ Cicierega, Neil (2009-11-18), Lemon Demon - "Eighth Wonder", retrieved 2016-02-27
- ↑
Swartz, Tim R. (January 4, 2019). "The Eighth Wonder of the World". In Beckley , Timothy Green ; Roberts, Paul Dale ; Inviticus , Hercules. Gef The Talking Mongoose: The "Eighth Wonder of the World". Inner Light Publishing. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-606-11987-7.
In fact, there is even a song written about him by Lemon Demon called "Eighth Wonder."
Search this book on
- ↑ 2Neil2Cicierega (2012-04-27), Lemon Demon - Reaganomics, retrieved 2016-02-27
- ↑ "Lemon Demon – Reaganomics Lyrics | Genius Lyrics". Genius. Retrieved October 21, 2020. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Neil Cicierega Tumblr". Neil Cicierega Tumblr. Retrieved 2021-01-04.
- ↑ "Neil Cicierega Tumblr". Neil Cicierega Tumblr. Retrieved 2021-01-04.
- ↑ Youmacon (2012-11-04), Youmacon 2012 - Lemon Demon Concert, retrieved 2016-02-27
- ↑ Cicierega, Neil [@neilcic] (2016-03-25). "it's slightly inspired by urban legends about a game called Polybius" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ↑ Couture, Joel (2019-01-23). "Alt.Ctrl.GDC Showcase: Neon Nemesis". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2020-10-09.
Born of a song: We took inspiration from a song called "Cabinet Man" by Lemon Demon. It sings the tale of a man who assimilated himself into an arcade machine, and whose sole purpose became to challenge anyone who dared put a quarter in him. Once the initial concept of Neon Nemesis was pitched, our entire team fell in love with the image of constructing a booth capable of housing a person inside of it. We still joke about how a simple song became the spark that led us to creating Neon Nemesis.
- ↑ "When He Died". Patreon. Retrieved 2016-02-27.
- ↑ "Lemon Demon - Kubrick and the Beast". neilblr.com. Retrieved 2016-02-27.
- ↑ "Lemon Demon - Spirit Phone". Discogs. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
- ↑ Cicierega, Neil (January 9, 2018). "Ivanushka | Neil Cicierega on Patreon". Patreon. Retrieved October 21, 2020. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Spirit Phone - Lemon Demon | User Reviews | AllMusic, retrieved October 5, 2020
- ↑ Houghtaling, Ellie (2019-10-11). "Here's a Halloween playlist for all your spooky music needs". Mashable.
- ↑ Leith, Ryan (2017-02-13). "Album Review: Neil Cicierega – Mouth Moods". Cultured Vultures.
- ↑ "Bandcamp". March 6, 2016. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Spirit Phone, by Lemon Demon". Lemon Demon. Retrieved October 5, 2020.
- ↑ "Lemon Demon - Spirit Phone (CD)". Discogs. Retrieved October 5, 2020.
- ↑ "Lemon Demon - Spirit Phone". Discogs. Retrieved October 5, 2020.
- ↑ "Lemon Demon – Spirit Phone". Needlejuice Records. 2019-01-06. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
