L7 - Bricks Are Heavy (1992) [LP Reissue 2015]

Bricks Are Heavy is the third album by the Los Angeles band L7, released in April 1992 through Slash Records. Backed by the single "Pretend We're Dead", the album became a breakthrough hit and the band became the "poster girls" of grunge music.[citation needed]

The album was released shortly after grunge had broken into the mainstream with the surprise success of Nirvana's Nevermind. In July 1992, the song "Pretend We're Dead" gained popularity among American rock radio stations, where it received regular airplay. By late August, the album had reached No. 1 on Billboard's Heatseekers album chart, and two weeks later it peaked at No. 160 on the Billboard 200.

Musically the album is heavier and dirtier than the band's previous recordings and described as "catchy tunes and mean vocals on top of ugly guitars and a quick-but-thick bottom of cast-iron grunge" by Entertainment Weekly. While the band retained its punk and hardcore punk roots, there was more emphasis on heavy metal than before.[citation needed] It was produced by Butch Vig, who is renowned for his work with bands such as Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth and, later, Garbage.