Lemonheads CD

The Lemonheads: Evan Dando (vocals); Karl Alvarez (bass guitar); Bill Stevenson.
Personnel: Evan Dando (guitar, lap steel guitar, piano, percussion); Bill Stevenson (guitar, drums, bongos, background vocals); Spot (guitar); Andrew Berlin (piano, electric piano); Garth Hudson (keyboards).
Additional personnel: J Mascis (guitar); Josh Lattanzi (bass guitar); Gibson Haynes (sound effects); Spot (unknown instrument); Garth Hudson.
Audio Mixer: Jason Livermore.
Recording information: Blasting Room, Ft. Collins, CO.
Introduction bys: Gibson Haynes; Spot.
Photographers: Bill Stevenson; Stacie Stevenson.
By calling his latest offering THE LEMONHEADS and claiming that "it sounds like the Lemonheads," Evan Dando seems to be responding to the criticisms that his last efforts have been uneven at best. Consistency is the aim here, and he achieves it with a collection that recalls the Lemonheads heyday: grunge-pop chord progressions, bursts of Dinosaur Jr.-lite guitar solos, and hooky melodies all delivered in Dando's lazy bedroom croon.
Bolstered by a line-up featuring bassist Karl Alvarez and drummer Bill Stevenson--both of Descendents fame--and with guest spots by J. Mascis, the songs energetically reimagine early-'90s alt-rock. None of them are as memorable as his best (like "My Drug Buddy" or the title track from IT'S A SHAME ABOUT RAY), but Dando's druggy charisma and flashes of wit can still carry the day. As he sings on "Pittsburgh," he is still "fading in and out of consciousness/with a little bit of common sense."
Many bands break up at the right time, or at least a little past it, but the Lemonheads' disbandment seemed premature, particularly because it didn't seem like they officially broke up; they just faded away. For Lemonheads leader Evan Dando, it was a surprisingly quick fall from glory -- or at least from being a Sassy star and one of People's Most Beautiful People, touted as the next big thing after Kurt Cobain, to being alt-rock's most notorious also-ran. Not long after the group's fourth album for Atlantic, 1996's Car Button Cloth, he quietly pulled the plug on the group and slinked away from the spotlight, taking a long, long time to recharge. After seven years, he resurfaced with a sleepy but likeable solo debut called Baby I'm Bored in 2003, and that activity apparently lit a fire underneath Dando, since three years later he reunited the Lemonheads, releasing an eponymous album that fall. The album only confirms the suspicion that the group should never have broken up -- unless that Dando needed the time to sober up and get refocused, since he certainly couldn't have made a record as tight and direct as this in the mid-'90s. Lord knows he tried, but for as wonderful as much of 1993'sCome on Feel the Lemonheads and Car Button Cloth are, both are ragged and filled with aimless filler, two things thankfully missing from The Lemonheads. Like the 1992 power pop classic It's a Shame About Ray, this is brief, lively, and tuneful, filled with two-to-three-minute songs that make their point and then get out of the way. If this isn't as incandescent, joyful, and effervescent as It's a Shame About Ray, that's because this is the work of a different band, one that's a bit older and not quite as exuberant, but one that nevertheless displays a renewed vigor and sense of purpose. And not only does the band sound excellent -- whether they're working as a trio or being goosed along by J Mascis, who provides typically excellent guitar on occasion here -- but they have a good batch of songs here that add up to Dando's most consistent album in years. They're zippier and catchier than anything on Baby I'm Bored, and even if there aren't any outright immediate classics along the lines of "If I Could Talk I'd Tell You," song for song this builds into not only a strong comeback, but one of the group's better records. The best thing that can be said about The Lemonheads is that it sounds like the album Dando and cSpin (p.102) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "Dando chooses maximum accessibility, offering agreeably chunky guitar pop..."
Uncut (p.100) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "THE LEMONHEADS is a moody, giddy, charming album, as ragged and dynamic as those the band were making half a lifetime ago."
Alternative Press (p.200) - "There's still something endearing about his confessions...especially when they're this catchy."
CMJ (p.39) - "[The album] gets by on charm, energy and his wonderfully lazy, caramel-coated voice, which has rarely sounded better."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.104) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "The Lemonheads have never sounded so feral yet so tight....Predictably peerless on the uptempo romps, the ensemble handles more reflective material with real tenderness too."