The Lemonheads Albums (9)
What The Critics Say
Inspirations rarely come more inspired than Gibby Haynes, the leader of the Butthole Surfers. For years, Gibby slipped Evan Dando mixtapes, and the Lemonheads leader pays tribute with Varshons, a covers album largely consisting of songs from those cassettes and produced by Haynes. At first glance this pairing might seem odd, but Gibby and Evan are both old hardcore punks with a taste for the strange. Evan may have crossed over more than Gibby, who made a career out of odd, but he never quite abandoned weirdness, with even Come on Feel the Lemonheads collapsing in the murk of "The Jello Fund." All the same, Varshons is easily the strangest Lemonheads record in maybe two decades and it's not so coincidentally one of their best, perched between the ragged, formless mess of their earliest records and Dando's enduring love for sweetly weathered country-rock. Gram Parsons, Evan's longtime idol, surfaces on Varshons, as does Townes Van Zandt, but a truer indication of the sun-warped spirit of the album lies in how the Lemonheads revamp Wire's "Fragile" into country-rock or how scum-rocker G.G. Allin's "Layin' Up with Linda" is given a murder ballad revision that resonates. But Varshons isn't all country -- there's a thick layer of Texas psychedelic haze, a rather ingenious take on Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful," a duet with Liv Tyler on Leonard Cohen's "Hey That's No Way to Say Goodbye," and, popping out of nowhere, a stiff new wave workout called "Dirty Robot" featuring Kate Moss on lead vocals. This sense of adventure ties Varshons to those earliest Lemonheads records, but the group marries that spirit to Dando's exceptionally intuitive interpretive skills, turning the album into a bit of a rough, unpolished gem. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
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 company should have released in 1995 -- and that it sounds like they could turn another of these out soon and that it'd be every bit as good. Which is the right kind of return for a band that should never have gone away in the first place. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Lemonheads leader EVAN DANDO is indeed a lemonhead. Or a bubblehead. And it still doesn't matter. The man is just too talented a tunesmith. Just as you shouldn't have been fooled by an overreaching, inane record company that marketed him for the teenyboppers as an "alterna-hunk" (who cares?), nor should anyone dismiss him just because his LPs always have a few outright duds on them ("Secular Rockulidge" here blows), making it seem that he writes too off-the-cuff or is too easily pleased. Nor should you write him off because his lyrics still stray into the sublimely idiotic (latest prose puzzler: "Khmer Rouge, Genocide qua" is not clever, it's stoooopid Evan! All the more so in the middle of the near-perfect pop single "If I Could Talk I'd Tell You."). And on the other side of the coin, I could rave about how Car Button Cloth is a mature work, more scattershot but ultimately more satisfying than the well-venerated It's a Shame About Ray and better thought out than the up-and-down, spastic C'mon Feel The Lemonheads. But, frankly, I don't give a (fill in naughty expletive of choice) about any of this. The important things are the HOOKS, which are plentiful and often instantly timeless, and Dando's voice, which becomes more convincing, sensitive, throaty, introspective, humble, and edgy each time out. And the overall attitude, which is loose but dripping with sincerity, earnestness, and real feeling. Sure, Dando's got the goods, and songs such as "It's All True" and "Break Me" are the sort that a million bands would work years at 7-11 to call their own. It almost seems unfair; he's written so many great ones this decade. But just as importantly, Dando has perfected the art of just being himself, without pretension, and it's a hell of a lot more honest and real and enjoyable than a truck load of overhyped, super-hip, underground product this year that, though far more high-brow, is ultimately tight-assed, calculating, suffocating, and worthless in comparison. I'd rather go where the real fun is, and it's here. The first three songs alone are like love at first hearing. ~ Jack Rabid, The Big Takeover, All Music Guide
'Come on Feel the Lemonheads'
Release Date 10/12/1993
Tracks 15
Label Atlantic
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Come On Feel the Lemonheads should have been the album that propelled the trio and Evan Dando to stardom, but instead of delivering a concise pop record in the vein of It's a Shame About Ray, they made a messy album that never quite found its focus. That's not to say that Come On Feel is without merit, because that's hardly the case. In many ways, it's the most interesting record that the Lemonheads have released, because it finds Dando confused about everything, particularly love, both for girls and drugs, and his burgeoning fame. There are moments of self-indulgence, whether it's the aimless piano instrumental "The Jello Fund" or two versions of the drug-obsessed "Style," yet they are as essential to the album's desperate tone as the heartbreaking acoustic ballad of "Favorite T." Between those two extremes is some of the finest power pop and country-rock Dando has ever written. He still has a tendency to be too cutesy, as on the otherwise winning country-rock of "Being Around" and "Big Gay Heart," but the hooky rush of "The Great Big No," the bright "I'll Do It Anyway," and the lovely simplicity of "Into Your Arms" is irresistible. Come On Feel may not be as consistent or immediate as It's a Shame About Ray, but finding its pleasures is quite rewarding. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
'It's a Shame About Ray'
Release Date 11/6/1992
Tracks 13
Label Atlantic
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
If Lovey captured Evan Dando as he found his signature blend of punk-pop, jangle pop, and folk-rock, It's a Shame About Ray is where he perfected that style. Breezing by in under half an hour, the album is a simple collection of sunny melodies and hooks, delivered with typical nonchalance by Dando. None of the songs are about anything major, nor do they have astonishingly original melodies, but that's part of their charm -- they're immediately accessible and thoroughly catchy. Dando's laid-back observations of middle-class outcasts are minor gems. The heartbroken title track or "Confetti," the crushes of "Bit Part in Your Life," the love letter to substances "My Drug Buddy," or the wonderful "Alison's Starting to Happen," where a girl finds herself as she discovers punk rock, capture the laconic rhythms of suburbia, and his warm, friendly voice, which is offset by Juliana Hatfield's girlish harmonies, gives the songs an emotional resonance. [It's a Shame About Ray was later re-released with a competent punk-pop remake of Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson" added as a bonus track. As Dando approached stardom, the album was repressed again with the title of "My Drug Buddy" truncated to "Buddy." It was later restored to its original title.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Although it's fairly incoherent, bouncing back and forth between punk-pop and folky pop, Lick is a thoroughly engaging record. The tensions between Evan Dando and Ben Deily are fairly evident throughout the album, especially since Dando's songs, with their immediate hooks and melodies, outshine his bandmate's, but that unevenness makes the record endearingly messy. Also, the mess makes the group's best songs, including an inspired electric cover of Suzanne Vega's "Luka," shine all the more brightly. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Demonstrating an increased sense of pop, not only in their songwriting but also in their relatively measured performances, the Lemonheads turn in a winning second album with Creator. Although they still spend a little too much time mucking around with sub-hardcore noise, Evan Dando's gentler pop numbers are quite appealing, even when he treads a little too closely to dippy-hippie clichés, and they certainly point the way to the engaging punk-pop of Lick. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Moving to a major label didn't affect the Lemonheads' sound as much as the departure of Ben Deily; without him, Evan Dando was free to let his sensitive side run wild, which is exactly what he does on Lovey. Dando never completely abandons punk-pop on Lovey, but he does balance it with excursions into jangle pop and country-rock, some of his best songwriting to date. By now, he has begun to develop a signature voice, a distinctly suburban and middle-class voice that embraces the mundane details of everyday life. That gives songs like "Stove" and "Lil' Seed" an off-kilter sensibility, which is made all the more appealing by his gift for simple hooks. Even though Dando has made significant strides forward, the most affecting moment on the record remains his stark and very pretty cover of Gram Parsons' "Brass Buttons." ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
