Violent Femmes (CD)

Violent Femmes is the band's most successful album to date and achieved a rare feat by going gold, four years after its release, and later platinum, without having yet made an appearance on the Billboard 200 album chart. The album has since went on to sell 1.8 million copies.

In a retrospective write-up for AllMusic, Steve Huey called Violent Femmes "one of the most distinctive records of the early alternative movement and an enduring cult classic", noting that "the music also owes something to the Modern Lovers' minimalism, but powered by Brian Ritchie's busy acoustic bass riffing and the urgency and wild abandon of punk rock, the Femmes forged a sound all their own", while crediting Gano for keeping "the music engaging and compelling without overindulging in his seemingly willful naiveté".

The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.