# Breakfast with Girls

Breakfast with Girls is the third studio album by American pop rock band Self, released on July 13, 1999, by DreamWorks Records and Spongebath Records. Its songs were mainly written and composed by Matt Mahaffey, the band's lead member. The album prominently maintains a power pop/art rock soundscape with elements of hip-hop and jazz.
Five singles supported it; the third, "Paint by Numbers", received a nomination for Song of the Year from the Nashville Music Association Awards, while the fifth, "Meg Ryan", was the album's major single. Upon release, Breakfast with Girls received mixed reviews from critics, who praised its inventiveness but critiqued its complexity. It peaked at number eighteen on the CMJ Top 200 chart, the band's best-known performance.

## Background

For his debut album, Subliminal Plastic Motives (1995), Self's lead member Matt Mahaffey focused on guitar arrangements and incorporating rock music. Following its release, he frequently appeared at rock radio stations, performed at venues within the genre, and received invitations to strip clubs from radio personalities and other music industry colleagues. Mahaffey's strong disinterest in this lifestyle led him to drop his guitar usage on his second album, The Half-Baked Serenade (1997), citing the first album as a bad first impression. He continued to hold the mindset when making his third album, declaring the project to be "anti-rock".

## Production

After signing to DreamWorks Records, a larger budget allowed Mahaffey to work with various acclaimed engineers and producers for the album, including Ken Andrews of Failure, Richard Dodd, and Hugh Padgham. He additionally recorded with a full orchestra for some songs, led by the Nashville String Machine. Sessions primarily took place at Ocean Way in Nashville, Tennessee, with additional recording done at the Bennett House in Franklin, Tennessee, Mahaffey's home in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and Treasure Isle in Nashville. Mahaffey composed each song's instrumental before writing lyrics, prioritizing a wide range of expression.
Mahaffey spent his weekdays working on Breakfast with Girls while allotting weekends to work on Gizmodgery (2000), an album recorded entirely with toy instruments. Mahaffey wrote and recorded "Suzie Q Sailaway" for inclusion on the latter, but was requested by the label to put it on the former. He subsequently re-recorded the song with a full band, wishing to contain toy songs to Gizmodgery. This process delayed the release of Breakfast with Girls, which, combined with the track's shift in style, led to a retroactive dissatisfaction. Despite having Self under contract, DreamWorks decided against releasing Gizmodgery under the label.
Late in development, DreamWorks executives told Mahaffey that the album didn't have any viable singles. In retaliation, he wrote "Uno Song" in two days as the "prettiest pop song" possible. Named after the card game Uno, it was intended to appeal to the band's female audience and become a hit single. The song is Mahaffey's first project in Pro Tools, thus the album's only non-analog song. The track's files were lost during production, leading the song's final version to be a rough mix. Instead of "Uno Song", the label chose "Meg Ryan" as a single, a love song centered around the actress of the same name. Overall, Self spent two years creating Breakfast with Girls.

## Release

"It All Comes Out in the Wash" appeared in volumes one and two of Soaking in the Center of the Universe, sampler albums released by Spongebath Records in January 1998 and March 1998, respectively. The second volume additionally featured "Placing the Blame". The third single, "Paint by Numbers", was included on the soundtrack of the film Dead Man on Campus (1998), which released through MTV and DreamWorks Records on July 21, 1998. Director Alan Cohn picked the song as a theme for the main character, Josh Miller (Tom Everett Scott). A website for the band later launched in promotion of Breakfast with Girls, advertised to feature new MP3 files daily. The album's fifth and final single, "Meg Ryan", was marketed as the album's main single.
Breakfast with Girls was delayed multiple times, first reported by CMJ to have a release date of August 25, 1998. In later issues, the magazine projected release dates of March 2, June 29, and July 14, 1999. The album eventually released on July 13, 1999, published through DreamWorks and Spongebath. It is the only studio album Self released through the former. Breakfast with Girls was distributed on CD, cassette, and vinyl. The latter was delayed in production due to a lack of commercial demand. Reissues of the album on streaming services are managed by Geffen Records, who absorbed DreamWorks once the label shut down.

### Cover artwork

The cover artwork of Breakfast with Girls shows Mahaffey and a woman walking together, largely obscured by the band's logo on a black background. Physical copies feature numerous more photos, each focusing on different band members. This design was conceived by Brian Bottcher, who previously did artwork for Subliminal Plastic Motives. He was inspired by the 1968 film The Party and its promotional cardboard lobby cards to make Breakfast with Girls' artwork resemble a film poster.

## Reception

Professional ratings :
| Review scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| Pitchfork | 6.5/10 |
| Spin | 7/10 |
The album received mixed reviews upon release. Gabe Besecker of Woof Magazine stated that the rock focus of Subliminal Plastic Motives led Breakfast with Girls to initially receive a negative reception for its power pop style, but is retrospectively regarded as "a masterpiece". Barry Walters of Spin reviewed Breakfast with Girls with a 7 out of 10 rating, complimenting Mahaffey's creativity and style fusions alongside the project's emotional vulnerability and quirkiness. Carlene Bauer of CMJ also praised the album's glossy, hook-driven pop, appreciating its fun instrumentation and mix of heartfelt and ironic lyricism.
Vincent Jeffries of AllMusic gave Breakfast with Girls 2.5 stars out of 5, criticizing its overly intricate presentation and lack of melodic appeal while commending its diverse musical styles and experimental composition. Nick Mirov of Pitchfork rated the album a 6.5 out of 10, highlighting Mahaffey's ambitious production and clever songwriting but stating that it often suffers from overcrowded ideas and mismatched elements. At the 1999 Nashville Music Association Awards, "Paint by Numbers" was nominated for Song of the Year, but lost to Faith Hill's "This Kiss".

## Track listing

All tracks are written by Matt Mahaffey, except where noted
Sample credits
* "What Are You Thinking?" embodies portions of "Chew, Chew, Chew, Chew Your Bubble Gum", written by Ella Fitzgerald, Buck Ram and Chick Webb, as performed by Ella Fitzgerald.
* "Breakfast with Girls" contains samples of "It Gets No Rougher", written by Hank Shocklee, Keith Shocklee, Eric Sadler and J.T. Smith, as performed by LL Cool J.
* "It All Comes Out in the Wash" contains samples of "Moanin' at Midnight", written by Chester Burnett, as performed by Howlin' Wolf.

## Personnel

Self
* Matt Mahaffey – lead vocals, instruments
* Mike Mahaffey – electric guitar, acoustic guitar (all tracks), bass (6, 12, 13), xylophone, clarinet samples (8)
* Mac Burrus – bass (all tracks), toilet (1), harmonica (2), double bass (9), trombone (11)
* Chris James – piano (1, 4, 6, 7), B-3, vox (2, 6), toy piano, xylophone (4)
* Jason Rawlings – drums (4, 7, 11), percussion (6, 12)
Additional musicians and arrangement
* Nashville String Machine – strings (7, 13)
* Richard Griffith – saxophone (9)
* David Jellema – horns (11)
* Chuck Lee – string arrangement (7)
* Ron Huff – conductor (7)
* Chris McDonald – string arrangement, conductor (13)
Technical
* Matt Mahaffey – production, engineer (all tracks), mixing engineer (5)
* Hugh Padgham – mixing engineer (1–3, 6–13)
* Csaba Petocz – mixing engineer (4)
* Bob Ludwig – mastering engineer
* Richard Williams – executive producer
* Richard Dodd – engineer
* Bobby Dufresne Jr. – engineer
* Jeff Balding – engineer
* Ken Andrews – engineer (all tracks), production (13)
* Shawn McLean – engineer (all tracks), string engineer (13)
* Joe Baldridge – engineer
* Chris James – engineer
* Glenn Spinner – assistant engineer
* Aaron Swihart – assistant engineer
* Joe Costa – assistant engineer
* Brian Garten – assistant engineer
* John Saylor – assistant engineer
* Allen Sides – string engineer (7)
Other
* Michael Ostin – artists and repertoire
* Brian Bottcher – art direction and design, photography
* Brooke Niessner – art and photo assistance
* Kathy Morgan – photography
* Doug Payne – photo assistance
* Zumwalt, Almon & Hayes – legal

## Brunch

Brunch is the first EP by American pop rock band Self, released through DreamWorks Records and Spongebath Records. It was given to fans who pre-ordered Breakfast with Girls as consolation for its multiple delays.

### Background

Mahaffey originally wrote and produced eighteen songs for Breakfast with Girls, but DreamWorks Records cut five. Some of these were picked to appear on Brunch, while all five appear as bonus tracks on vinyl copies of the album. The first song, "Fliptop Box", consists solely of indirect references to smoking. Mahaffey struggled with addiction at the time, so he wrote the song in a failed attempt to quit.

### Track listing
## Charts

Weekly chart performance for Breakfast with Girls :
| Chart (1999) | Peak position |
| Alternative Radio Airplay (CMJ) | 19 |
| CMJ Top 200 | 18 |
Year-end chart performance for Breakfast with Girls :
| Chart (1999) | Position |
| CMJ Top 200 | 102 |