Leaving Wonderland... in a Fit of Rage is the fourth studio album by American alternative rock band Marcy Playground, released on July 7, 2009[2] by WOZ Records.[3][4] It was begun as a John Wozniak solo album.[5] The album's first single was "Blackbird".[6]
The album was produced by Jeff Dawson and John Wozniak; Wozniak had appreciated Dawson's production work at Mushroom Studios.[9][10] Its lyrics were inspired by a difficult period in the singer's life.[11][12]Leaving Wonderland... in a Fit of Rage was recorded in part with original band member Dylan Keefe.[13] The band added drummer Shlomi Lavie after the album was completed.[14]
Exclaim! called the album "a tribute to the opiate-inspired, alt-rock tradition [the band] once popularized."[16] The Star Tribune deemed it "a slightly rootsier update of the group's quirky style."[17] The Star-News labeled it "sonically diverse and intensely personal."[18]
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review determined that "the music still has a dark aspect and it's still pop; it's just radio that has stopped paying attention."[19] The Toronto Sun considered the album to be "a fairly enjoyable and varied set of mellow Beatle-pop and roots, peppered with surprisingly crunchy guitar-rockers."[15] The Intelligencer Journal concluded that "all 12 songs on Leaving Wonderland ... are excellent, driven by Wozniak's gift for melody."[20]
AllMusic wrote that "it deserves to be heard by a wider audience as it proves that there's more to Marcy Playground and Wozniak than one grunge-era hit."[2]
