Dizzy Mizz Lizzy (album)
Encyclopedia
Dizzy Mizz Lizzy is the eponymous debut album of the Danish rock band Dizzy Mizz Lizzy
, released in on 4 March 1994.
and DR P4
. "Waterline" became the banner anthem for the grunge
wave that hit Denmark, even though the band thought it was one of the least obvious songs to become a hit. Because the demo was only in limited circulation, the album was pre-ordered by over 7,000 fans. Despite a growing demand, the band took some time in search of the right label to represent them. They rejected several foreign offers before being contracted to EMI
-Medley by Nick Foss, whom they knew from his work as producer
for D-A-D
and The Sandmen. They went into the studio with Foss for three months. Lead singer and guitarist Tim Christensen
recalls: "We were very nervous, even when we went into the studio to record. We have continually received positive criticism, so we felt that there was a huge burden on our shoulders."
In two months' time following the 4 March 1994 release, it won a gold record
for having sold over 40,000 copies; two months later it won platinum, and another two months later sales had exceeded 100,000 copies. By 1996, sales were up to 180,000 copies, by which time it was the fastest-selling Danish debut ever. To date it has sold over 250,000 copies in Denmark
, a sales record that still stands and is good for 5× Platinum. The album was well-received and described as "Paul McCartney
meeting Led Zeppelin
in Seattle," although others were more critical, putting it as "A record and a band that have not added anything new to rock music, but who nevertheless have set completely different standards for Danish rock," especially in terms of the music becoming louder. Its success "only tolerates national comparison with the merits of Gasolin'
in the 1970s and the international adoration of Aqua
". A review in the Danish music magazine GAFFA
described it as:
By accident the CD ended up with Hans Otto Bisgård of EMI
's Japanese division, who was excited about the album and had it released in Japan where it became a success and sold about 100,000 copies. Five singles were released from the album and all got much radio play: "Silverflame", "Barbedwired Baby's Dream", "Love Is a Loser's Game", "Glory" and "Waterline". The band went on a tour through much of Western Europe
and played 3 sold-out shows in the Japan
ese cities Sapporo, Osaka
and Tokyo
. In 1995, the album garnered the band four Danish Grammys
for Danish group of the year, Danish newcomer of the year, Danish rock album of the year, and the People's choice award.
s of the band.
box set. It was digitally remaster
ed by Nikolaj Vinten who had also mastered
the album in 1994. A remaster of the Japan
ese bonus track
"Hurry Hurry" was included on another disc in the box set, which also includes the 1993 demos. In the track listing, "Waterline Intro" was merged into "Waterline". The cover art
had completely been redrawn by Paul Wilson of Yellow1 because the original designs by MandOverBord had not been saved. The backdrop of the new front cover (shown on the right) shows clear differences, the yellow lettering is brighter, while there are darker shadows in the girl's face. The print on the disc is more modern, and the booklet has been modified and expanded with liner notes by Jan Poulsen, although it was strongly inspired by the original and contains the same photography by Einar vid Neyst. The packaging has changed from jewel case to Digipak
.
The remasters of the 2010 reissue
sparked a wave of downloads of the album and of individual songs from the iTunes Store
and inspired the Danish producer and DJ
Morten Breum to release a remix
of "Waterline" on 5 April 2010.
Production
Dizzy Mizz Lizzy
Dizzy Mizz Lizzy was an alternative rock band from Denmark that started in 1988. Between 1994 and 1997, they were highly successful in Denmark and Japan, heading the early 1990s rock revival in Denmark. The trio consisted of Tim Christensen , Martin Nielsen and Søren Friis...
, released in on 4 March 1994.
Reception
Before the album was even recorded, the songs "Waterline" and "Silverflame" from the band's 1993 demo received heavy rotation on radio stations, including DR P3DR P3
DR P3 is the third of the four national radio networks operated by the Danish public broadcaster DR...
and DR P4
DR P4
P4 is the regional radio channel of Denmark's national public broadcasting corporation, DR. The 11 regional stations which make up P4 originate their own local programming and also carry jointly produced nationwide content...
. "Waterline" became the banner anthem for the grunge
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
wave that hit Denmark, even though the band thought it was one of the least obvious songs to become a hit. Because the demo was only in limited circulation, the album was pre-ordered by over 7,000 fans. Despite a growing demand, the band took some time in search of the right label to represent them. They rejected several foreign offers before being contracted to EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
-Medley by Nick Foss, whom they knew from his work as producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
for D-A-D
D-A-D
D-A-D is a Danish rock band previously known as "Disneyland After Dark", a name that had to be changed after a threatening lawsuit from The Walt Disney Company. Their style of music is often categorized as melodic heavy rock...
and The Sandmen. They went into the studio with Foss for three months. Lead singer and guitarist Tim Christensen
Tim Christensen
Tim Christensen is a Danish singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who plays guitar, bass guitar, drums, Mellotron, harmonium, keyboard, piano and organ...
recalls: "We were very nervous, even when we went into the studio to record. We have continually received positive criticism, so we felt that there was a huge burden on our shoulders."
In two months' time following the 4 March 1994 release, it won a gold record
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
for having sold over 40,000 copies; two months later it won platinum, and another two months later sales had exceeded 100,000 copies. By 1996, sales were up to 180,000 copies, by which time it was the fastest-selling Danish debut ever. To date it has sold over 250,000 copies in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, a sales record that still stands and is good for 5× Platinum. The album was well-received and described as "Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
meeting Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
in Seattle," although others were more critical, putting it as "A record and a band that have not added anything new to rock music, but who nevertheless have set completely different standards for Danish rock," especially in terms of the music becoming louder. Its success "only tolerates national comparison with the merits of Gasolin'
Gasolin'
Gasolin was a Danish rock band from Christianshavn in Copenhagen formed by Kim Larsen, Franz Beckerlee and Wili Jønsson in 1969. Their first drummer was the late Bjørn Uglebjerg. He was replaced by Søren Berlev in 1971...
in the 1970s and the international adoration of Aqua
Aqua (band)
Aqua is a Danish dance-pop group, best known for their 1997 breakthrough single "Barbie Girl". The group formed in 1989 and achieved huge success across the globe in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The group managed to top the UK Singles Chart with their first three singles. The group released two...
". A review in the Danish music magazine GAFFA
Gaffa (magazine)
Gaffa is a free Danish music magazine, published on a monthly basis since 1983. The magazine is distributed to places such as educational institutions, record shops, libraries and cafés, as well as a small number to paying subscribers...
described it as:
The eagerly awaited debut is breathtaking, as even the sourest stomach acid will declare. The record is a long display of a genuine joy in playing and an unspoiled love for heavy rock.
It all heavily oozes Led Zeppelin and Seattle, but the trio wants, and inexplicably even manages it, to create their own musical identity. They do it primarily through of a series of bulletproof melodies that are lifting the heavy tones up the heights where trumpet-playing angels usually provide the musical entertainment. It's simply a relief to hear such a young rock band, who both can and dare write pretty banal tunes.
Although the band might run a little generously over the same melodies, Dizzy Mizz Lizzy the most promising rock debut in Denmark in many, many years.
—Jan Poulsen, GAFFA
Gaffa (magazine)Gaffa is a free Danish music magazine, published on a monthly basis since 1983. The magazine is distributed to places such as educational institutions, record shops, libraries and cafés, as well as a small number to paying subscribers...
By accident the CD ended up with Hans Otto Bisgård of EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
's Japanese division, who was excited about the album and had it released in Japan where it became a success and sold about 100,000 copies. Five singles were released from the album and all got much radio play: "Silverflame", "Barbedwired Baby's Dream", "Love Is a Loser's Game", "Glory" and "Waterline". The band went on a tour through much of Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
and played 3 sold-out shows in the Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese cities Sapporo, Osaka
Osaka
is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...
and Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
. In 1995, the album garnered the band four Danish Grammys
Danish Music Awards
The Danish Music Awards is a Danish award show. The show has been arranged by IFPI since 1989, and was originally called IFPI-prisen until 1991, when it changed its name to Dansk Grammy . The current name was given in 2001, after the American Grammy Awards took copyright on the name Grammy....
for Danish group of the year, Danish newcomer of the year, Danish rock album of the year, and the People's choice award.
Cover art
The cover art was designed by MandOverBord. About the girl, Christensen explains: "The photo is from around 1920. It depicts the older sister of my grandmother on mother's side. She died at about age 14 of tuberculosis. Her real name is Vera. There are two or three copies of the photo in my family. I have one hanging in my apartment. The same photo hung in my home, and when we were searching for a cover for our first release (the 1993 promo), we felt it was a great idea to use the picture of her as a sort of mascot or logo." The picture was reused for the cover of Dizzy Mizz Lizzy and also appears on later compilation albumCompilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
s of the band.
Remaster
The album was re-released on March 29, 2010 as part of the DizzcographyDizzcography
Dizzcography is a box set released in 2010, containing all previously released material by the Danish rock band Dizzy Mizz Lizzy. The CD version is collected in a black printed cardboard box as four Digipak CDs and a 40-page booklet. The box set was also released in a limited press on 8...
box set. It was digitally remaster
Remaster
Remaster is a word marketed mostly in the digital audio age, although the remastering process has existed since recording began...
ed by Nikolaj Vinten who had also mastered
Audio mastering
Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
the album in 1994. A remaster of the Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese bonus track
Bonus track
In terms of recorded music, a bonus track is a piece of music which has been included on specific releases or reissues of an album. This is most often done as a promotional device, either as an incentive to customers to purchase albums they might otherwise not, or to repurchase albums they already...
"Hurry Hurry" was included on another disc in the box set, which also includes the 1993 demos. In the track listing, "Waterline Intro" was merged into "Waterline". The cover art
Cover art
Cover art is the illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book , magazine, comic book, video game , DVD, CD, videotape, or music album. The art has a primarily commercial function, i.e...
had completely been redrawn by Paul Wilson of Yellow1 because the original designs by MandOverBord had not been saved. The backdrop of the new front cover (shown on the right) shows clear differences, the yellow lettering is brighter, while there are darker shadows in the girl's face. The print on the disc is more modern, and the booklet has been modified and expanded with liner notes by Jan Poulsen, although it was strongly inspired by the original and contains the same photography by Einar vid Neyst. The packaging has changed from jewel case to Digipak
Digipak
Digipak is a patented style of CD, DVD or BD packaging, and is a registered trademark of AGI World Ltd., an Atlas Holdings company.-Features:...
.
The remasters of the 2010 reissue
Reissue
A reissue is the repeated issue of a published work. In common usage, it refers to an album which has been released at least once before and is released again, sometimes with alterations or additions....
sparked a wave of downloads of the album and of individual songs from the iTunes Store
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
and inspired the Danish producer and DJ
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
Morten Breum to release a remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
of "Waterline" on 5 April 2010.
Track listing
Singles
- "Silverflame"
- "Barbedwired Baby's Dream"
- "Love Is a Loser's Game"
- "Glory"
- "Waterline"
Personnel
Dizzy Mizz Lizzy- Tim ChristensenTim ChristensenTim Christensen is a Danish singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who plays guitar, bass guitar, drums, Mellotron, harmonium, keyboard, piano and organ...
– guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, songwriterSongwriterA songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer... - Martin Nielsen – bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
- Søren Friis – drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
Production
- Nick Foss – producerRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, mixerMix engineerA mix engineer, also referred to as "mixing engineer", is a person who, once all instruments, voices, and sounds, etc., have been recorded, creates what is called the final version of a song, hence the term "mix engineer"... - Lars Overgaard – engineer, masteringAudio masteringMastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
, mixer - MandOverBord – cover art
- Einar vid Neyst – photography