The Lemonheads - The Lemonheads (Polydor)
4/5
By: Thomas Hannan
Was there ever any point in that Evan Dando solo album, seeing the Lemonheads were always a rotating bunch of backing musicians anyway? Had he really pissed off so many people that nobody in their right mind would want to become a Lemonhead? Perhaps. But it's odd that he's now so proud of the name that it's not only the front for his music again, but the name of the resulting reformation album. You'll note however that his face is the only one on the cover. It's still very much the Evan Dando show.
Has much changed? No. There's uncharacteristically delicate use of a piano to start things off, but only before some guitar squall breaks in within seconds, and we're all feeling right at home straight away. They certainly sound like they are. Perhaps this is all grunge ever was - heavy metal country songs where the fiddle's replaced by the Stratocaster. And boy, that guitar playing nails me to the wall - it's J Mascis after all. The trend for rotating line ups continues, as it always will. It sounds marvellous, as it always will.
Dandos songs are funny little things still. They're instantly likeable, but only loveable after time. There seems so little to them at first, but eventually it's exactly this that becomes their charm. It's a testament to his sonic ability that he can make such a flimsy frame sound so strong, a case in point being 'Become The Enemy', which despite its lolloping pace and lack of any real flourishing, is a really lovely single.
It's certainly an American album, and not ashamed of being one - 'Pittsburgh' and 'Poughkeepsie' (probably the best track here) might talk of people in those towns but there's certainly something to the sound and that fact that they're titled after the places rather than the experiences or the people in question that suggests Dando's looking around him a lot in his old age, becoming very aware of his surroundings just as young bands are becoming aware of him.
At its worst it just drifts by still pleasantly, never grating, but not invigorating. This usually happens when the melody isn't so strong as to carry the song well enough, but the guitar work is always worth listening to - again, it is after all J Mascis doing much of it. In short though, people are going to be happy that there just is another Lemonheads album, regardless of what it sounds like. The fact that it's a genuinely strong one is just particularly thick icing on that cake.
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