| Love with the Proper Stranger | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | the Aquanettas |
| Cover: | Love with the Proper Stranger (album).jpg |
| Released: | 1990 |
| Genre: | Rock |
| Label: | Nettwerk/I.R.S. |
| Producer: | Mike Landolt |
| Next Title: | Roadhaüs |
| Next Year: | 1993 |
Love with the Proper Stranger is the debut album by the American band the Aquanettas, released in 1990.[1] [2] A video was produced for the album's lead single, "Diplomat".[3] The band supported the album with a North American tour.[4]
All four band members contributed to the songwriting; they also worked with outside writers.[5] Their chief influences were the Rolling Stones and the Velvet Underground.[6] Nettwerk Records intentionally distorted the band photo on the album's cover, so that the group would not be perceived as merely a "girl group".[3] "Pictures of Italy" is an ode to pasta.
Trouser Press wrote: "Without pushing it as a gimmicky signature, singer/guitarist Deborah Schwartz’s mighty voice is redolent of West Coast ’60s folkrockers like the Mamas and the Papas (and, therefore, the early Bangles as well); drummer Stephanie Seymour’s high harmonies enhance and elevate the effect, as do the acoustic strummings and Jill Richmond’s tradition-packed lead guitar interjections."[7] The Washington Post thought that the Aquanettas "aren't significantly retooling garage-rock, but they are keeping the engine warm," writing that the "melodic and vigorous ... tunes are vaguely Go-Go-ish, but more rakish."[8] The New York Times deemed the music "classic, basic rock-and-roll: just rugged guitar riffs and lyrics about the more bothersome aspects of romance."[9]
The Los Angeles Daily News called the album "a celebration of acid- etched melody, reverberant guitars and monotone vocals," writing that the music "suggests the Bangles on hallucinogens." USA Today lamented that the Aquanettas "weren't produced very well."[10] The New Haven Register deemed Love with the Proper Stranger "one of 1990's overlooked gems."[11]