Spirit Phone

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]

Spirit Phone
Studio album by
Lemon Demon
ReleasedFebruary 29, 2016
Recorded2009-2016(???)
Genre
Length59:24
LabelSelf-released, Needlejuice Records
Lemon Demon chronology
Nature Tapes
(2014)		 Spirit Phone
(2016)
Neil Cicierega chronology
Mouth Silence
(2014)		 Spirit Phone
(2016)		 Mouth Moods
(2017)

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 song "Touch-Tone Telephone" becoming Lemon Demon's most-played song on Spotify, surpassing "The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny".

History

Following the release of Lemon Demon's 2008 album View-Monster, Spirit Phone was worked on over the course of 8 years.[7] Some songs from the album were released and performed during this time-span.

In July 2009, Neil Cicierega put up 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",[8] a song about the cryptid Gef (with lyrics containing many of Gef's alleged quotations).[9]

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.[10] 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).[11]

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",[12] and a lyric from the second was repurposed into the bonus track "Moon's Request".[13]

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.[14] 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)[15]— 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.[16]

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.[17]

In June 2015, the instrumental track "Kubrick and the Beast" was cut from the album and released on Bandcamp.[18] However, the track ended up making it into the album as a bonus track.[19]

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.[7]

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.[20]

Reception

Spirit Phone received generally positive reception. As of October 5, 2020, it holds an aggregate score of 4/5, 81/100, and 3.62/5 on AllMusic, Album of the Year, and Rate Your Music respectively.[21][22][23]

Anthony Fantano of The Needle Drop reviewed the album fondly (rating it an 8 out of 10), criticizing some of the audio mixing, but praising improvements over Lemon Demon's earlier work and the catchiness of its melodies, describing the hooks as "so good I get a rush of them".[24] He went on to place Spirit Phone #31 in his Top 50 Albums of 2016.[25]

Mashable included "Touch-Tone Telephone" and "Eighth Wonder" on their official 2019 Halloween playlist, calling "Touch-Tone Telephone" one of many "real gems".[26] Cultured Vultures called the horror-themed Spirit Phone "one of the wildest pop albums of the year".[27]

The album was the #1 best-selling album on Bandcamp for the first week of its release.[28]

Track listing

All tracks are written, performed and recorded by Neil Cicierega, except where noted.[29]

No.TitleLength
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

The album also contains 13 bonus tracks; consisting of demos, cut songs, and additional music.

No.TitleLength
15."Angelfire (Bonus Track)"3:41
16."Angry People (Bonus Tracks)"4:54
17."Cabinet Man (Demo) (Bonus Track)"2:41
18."Cat Hacks (Bonus Track)"3:07
19."Crisis Actors (Bonus Track)"4:48
20."Geocities (Bonus Track)"3:25
21."Gravitron (Bonus Track)"0:53
22."Kubrick and the Beast (Bonus Track)"2:44
23."Moon's Request (Bonus Track)"2:21
24."Pizza Heroes (Bonus Track)"1:31
25."Redesign Your Logo (Bonus Track)"4:21
26."Sweet Bod (Bonus Track)"4:14
27."You're at the Party (Bonus Track)"5:21
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".[30] 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.[31]

References
  1. 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
  2. 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
  3. "Neil Cicierega Tumblr". Neil Cicierega Tumblr. Retrieved October 3, 2020.
  4. 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
  5. "Ming Doyle Tumblr - Neil Cicierega: Spirit Phone". mingdoyle.tumblr.com. Retrieved February 26, 2016.
  6. "Spirit Phone, by Lemon Demon". Lemon Demon. Retrieved February 26, 2016.
  7. "LEMON DEMON'S SPIRIT PHONE COMING TO LP, CD, AND CASSETTE". Needlejuice Records. July 10, 2018. Retrieved October 26, 2018.
  8. Cicierega, Neil (November 18, 2009), Lemon Demon - "Eighth Wonder", retrieved February 27, 2016
  9. Swartz, Tim R. (January 4, 2019). "The Eighth Wonder of the World". In Beckley, Timothy Green; Roberts, Paul Dale; Inviticus, Hercules (eds.). 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."
  10. 2Neil2Cicierega (April 27, 2012), Lemon Demon - Reaganomics, retrieved February 27, 2016
  11. "Lemon Demon – Reaganomics Lyrics | Genius Lyrics". Genius. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  12. "Neil Cicierega Tumblr". Neil Cicierega Tumblr. Retrieved January 4, 2021.
  13. "Neil Cicierega Tumblr". Neil Cicierega Tumblr. Retrieved January 4, 2021.
  14. Youmacon (November 4, 2012), Youmacon 2012 - Lemon Demon Concert, retrieved February 27, 2016
  15. Cicierega, Neil [@neilcic] (March 25, 2016). "it's slightly inspired by urban legends about a game called Polybius" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  16. Couture, Joel (January 23, 2019). "Alt.Ctrl.GDC Showcase: Neon Nemesis". Gamasutra. Retrieved October 9, 2020. 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.
  17. "When He Died". Patreon. Retrieved February 27, 2016.
  18. "Lemon Demon - Kubrick and the Beast". neilblr.com. Retrieved February 27, 2016.
  19. "Lemon Demon - Spirit Phone". Discogs. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  20. Cicierega, Neil (January 9, 2018). "Ivanushka | Neil Cicierega on Patreon". Patreon. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  21. Spirit Phone - Lemon Demon | User Reviews | AllMusic, retrieved October 5, 2020
  22. "Lemon Demon - Spirit Phone". Album of The Year. Retrieved October 5, 2020.
  23. Spirit Phone by Lemon Demon, retrieved October 5, 2020
  24. Lemon Demon - Spirit Phone ALBUM REVIEW. YouTube. March 11, 2016.
  25. Top 50 Albums of 2016. YouTube. December 23, 2016.
  26. Houghtaling, Ellie (October 11, 2019). "Here's a Halloween playlist for all your spooky music needs". Mashable.
  27. Leith, Ryan (February 13, 2017). "Album Review: Neil Cicierega – Mouth Moods". Cultured Vultures.
  28. "Bandcamp". March 6, 2016. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016.
  29. "Spirit Phone, by Lemon Demon". Lemon Demon. Retrieved October 5, 2020.
  30. "Lemon Demon - Spirit Phone". Discogs. Retrieved October 5, 2020.
  31. "Lemon Demon – Spirit Phone". Needlejuice Records. January 6, 2019. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
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