| Cut You | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Penelope Houston |
| Border: | yes |
| Released: | 1996 |
| Genre: | Alternative rock |
| Label: | Reprise[1] |
| Producer: | Penelope Houston, Jeffrey Wood |
| Prev Title: | Crazy Baby |
| Prev Year: | 1994 |
| Next Title: | Tongue |
| Next Year: | 1998 |
Cut You is an album by the American musician Penelope Houston, released in 1996.[2] [3] It is a mixture of rerecorded older songs and new songs. Cut You was Houston's major label debut; many of her previous albums had been available only in Germany.[4] [5] Houston promoted the album with North American and European tours.[6]
Signed to Reprise Records by her old acquaintance Howie Klein, Houston composed six new songs, while adding more instrumentation to her rerecorded older ones.[7] The album was produced by Houston and Jeffrey Wood. Reprise asked Houston to withdraw "Cut You"; she instead made it the title track.[8] "Secret Sign" is about a run-in with a ex's new girlfriend.[9]
No Depression thought that Houston's songs "tend to involve many nameless, spiritually wiped-out characters captured in moments of particular drama ... instead of telling the whole story as a traditional folksinger might, Houston is more of a tour guide."[10] Trouser Press deemed the album "a solid cross-section of her material ... the playing and recording quality are absolutely vibrant and Houston sings as wonderfully as ever."[11] The Chicago Tribune concluded that Houston "goes well beyond empowerment, penning lyrics as smart as they are wicked." The Los Angeles Times wrote that "'Locket' glides along to a Latin-tinged beat while the title track, with its light country twang and darkly comic lyric, evokes a vindictive, post-punk incarnation of Patsy Cline."
Tulsa World stated that "the songs are built around intricate lyrical jabs and worldly insights."[12] The Washington Post determined that "what's most impressive about Cut You is Houston's vivid depictions of women who are attempting to square their reality with sometimes fading desires and dreams."[13] Rolling Stone opined that "Houston ties it together with gossamer vocals and lyrics that invert the accusations of punk."[14] The Boston Globe called the album "mature rock with punk roots, soft songs with sting."[15]
AllMusic wrote that the album "offers proof that Houston helped pioneer the melodic-yet-hard-hitting alternative rock currently mined by such performers as Liz Phair and Aimee Mann."