This came out in 2001 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Oh, she’s purging all right — purging herself of her punk-rock grit and underground edge.
On this debut full-length for a major label, Bettie Page-banged former Winnipegger Bif Naked has apparently acquired an appetite for full-fledged pop stardom. So she bellies up to the modern-rock buffet and fills up this 12-song platter with piles of sweetly crunchy tuneage so radio-friendly it makes the pop-punk of her last album I Bificus seem like death metal. Cuts like Choking on the Truth, Tango Shoes and Regular Guy subsist on a steady diet of cute hooky choruses, girl-pop vocals, safely bopping beats, acoustic guitars and new-wave hand-clap arrangements — the same ingredients you might find dished up by The Go-Go’s, Bangles or No Doubt. Rockier tunes like Leader and the single I Love Myself Today try to rekindle the old flame, but soggy cuts like the orchestrated ballad Stolen Sidewalk quickly douse the flame. If this doesn’t turn Bif from tattooed punk-rock goddess into alterna-pop it girl, nothing will. But for old fans, Purge may be tough to swallow.
