| Personal Best | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | January 23, 1995 | |||
| Recorded | August 12–16, 1994[1] | |||
| Studio | Avast! inSeattle, Washington | |||
| Genre | Punk rock,queercore | |||
| Length | 24:14 | |||
| Label | Candy Ass,Chainsaw | |||
| Producer | John Goodmanson, Team Dresch[2] | |||
| Team Dresch chronology | ||||
| ||||
Personal Best is the firststudio album by the Americanqueercore bandTeam Dresch. It was released on January 23, 1995, by bothCandy Ass Records andChainsaw Records.[3] It was reissued onJealous Butcher Records in May 2019. The label reissued their entire back catalog in order to help reaffirm the band's legacy as queercore icons.[4]
Personal Best was produced byJohn Goodmanson and the band and recorded atAvast! inSeattle,Washington, from August 12 to August 16, 1994.[1] As the band's first album,[5] it was released in January 1995 on the singer and guitaristJody Bleyle's labelCandy Ass Records and the bass guitaristDonna Dresch's labelChainsaw Records.[6][7] The album's title and cover are a reference to the 1982lesbian-themed film,Personal Best.[8]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [7] |
| MusicHound Rock |  [2] |
| Pitchfork | 9.1/10[9] |
| The Village Voice |  [10] |
Johnny Histon ofSpin praised the album'sLGBT lyrical themes, writing that they had never been explored before in rock music. He concluded, "Team Dresch knows that simply being itself and making great music is a political act. OnPersonal Best they do both."[8]
Retrospectively, Jason Ankeny ofAllMusic declared the album a "call to arms" that "explodes on contact", writing, "Of all the punk records to come out of the 1990s,Personal Best comes closest to actually recapturing the sheer passion and rage which originally spawned the movement two decades earlier". He praised how the band "never put their politics ahead of their songs — each of these ten tracks is airtight, with melodies as blistering as the lyrics".[7]The Washington Post writer Chris Richards calledPersonal Best "a fiery, all-but-forgotten punk masterpiece".[11]
Credits are adapted from the album'sliner notes.[1]
{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)