A Promise is the second studio album by American experimental band Xiu Xiu, released on February 18, 2003 by 5 Rue Christine.
Overview
The track "Sad Pony Guerrilla Girl" is a reworking of a song by Jamie Stewart's previous band Ten In The Swear Jar (XITSJ), called just "Sad Girl", which first appeared on their 1999 album My Very Private Map. "Pink City" also has its roots in a two-part song from XITSJ's unreleased album Eat Death Orphans!, which was eventually published in 2005's Accordion Solo! as "Hot Karl".
The album includes a stripped-down cover of Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car", of which Stewart said "That song really, very, very, very directly shaped how I wanted to write lyrics or what I wanted songs to be about...I wanted them to turn out in so far as the song very specifically narrates some particular horrible things that happen to somebody and there's no positive resolution in the end at all."
Referring to the closing track, "Ian Curtis Wishlist", Stewart explained that "an Ian Curtis wish list is a list of things that you have convinced yourself that you want to have happen, but you know that are never going to happen."
Cover art
The cover art shows "a nude man kneeling on a bed and holding an upside-down baby doll".
| rev2 = Pitchfork
| rev2score = 8.6/10
| rev3 = Stylus
| rev3score = B
| rev4 = Tiny Mix Tapes
| rev4score =
Brandon Stosuy of Pitchfork wrote that Stewart "came into [their] own" on A Promise.