Here’s one from a band I loved for a year or two and then largely forgot about, Lemonheads It’s A Shame About Ray. Like everyone else in the known universe I fell for their grunge-lite back in ’92 and had a big man crush on Evan Dando to boot – know that picture of him on the front cover of Come On Feel The Lemonheads? that’s how I look to myself inside my own brain. I played out at least one cassette copy of this album back in the day, I know I got them early because my copy didn’t have the cover of ‘Mrs Robinson’, which was added to later editions of the album and ‘Drug Buddy’ hadn’t been toned down in the name of global success to ‘Buddy’. My copy is a pretty average condition rerelease I picked up cheap on eBay ten years ago.
The seeming overnight success of the Lemonheads was deceptive, It’s A Shame About Ray was the band’s fifth album. I’ve heard the earlier chaotic low-fi punky albums but there was nothing there that I remember worth going back for, so this album was our launch pad. Now I must ‘fess up to having a real problem with Juliana Hatfield, she plays bass here which is fine – no issues. It’s just when she opens her mouth and starts off with that whiney child’s voice of hers, yuk! her backing vocals really take the shine off a couple of the tunes here, ‘Bit Part’ in particular. Were I multi-zillionaire I would arrange for a remastered rerelease of It’s A Shame About Ray removing all trace of them, oh and I’d probably pay to have a disease cured too; definitely do the remaster though.
Anyway griping aside, I enjoyed all the bits of the album I always used to, the great cover of ‘Mrs Robinson’ which I’ve thrown myself around many a packed dance floor to and {Sacrilege Alert} I prefer to the original, the gentle swoon of the title track and the end of ‘Rudderless’ where Dando sings ‘like a ship without a rudder’ over and over again. Oh and I’ve always been a sucker for the sad lilting swell of ‘Drug Buddy’, which carries echoes of the Band to these tired ears. Oh and I really like the perky marital break-up on ‘Confetti’ too. Oh, and the shouty bit at the beginning of ‘Bit Part’, before you-know-who comes along and spoils it*.
I also had no idea that my favourite track on the album, ‘Frank Mills’ was a cover (from the musical Hair), call me culturally bald, but I didn’t realise. In fact it spoilt the song for me a little, I thought it was by far the Lemonheads’ best lyric too. It’s the old Jane’s Addiction-didn’t-write-Jane-Says all over again, for me! What next? you’ll be telling me Joe Cocker didn’t write ‘With a Little Help From My Friends’?! or that Sex Pistols didn’t write ‘My Way’?! Get thee behind me Satan!
Okay, okay so I admit it, I pretty much like it all when I think about it, even the samier tracks like ‘Kitchen’ and ‘The Turnpike Down’. What Lemonheads had going for them was a really good, melodic sound, some good playing and perfect timing. It’s A Shame About ray came out at exactly the right time and it’s proportions of grunge, country, pop and acoustica were exactly right, it’s the sort of album that would and did sound great in a coffee shop. Now I know that sounds like I’m damning it with faint praise but that’s not my intention at all, it’s a pleasant 32 minutes worth of music with a couple of great tunes, nothing more nothing less.
If Nirvana were my generation’s Beatles, in terms of cultural impact, then Lemonheads were our generation’s Mamas and the Papas – occasionally great tune, but comparatively lightweight**. Sometimes that’s just fine and dandy, not every record needs to set your very soul on fire, some were made to be enjoyed a lot and then pulled out occasionally and enjoyed a bit again for nostalgic reasons. It’s definitely not a shame about It’s A Shame About Ray.
386 Down.
*no, not Voldemort, Juliana Hatfield – much worse, better nose but much worse.
**I know, I know most groups never record anything 10% as good as ‘California Dreaming’, but I’m playing that one down for my metaphorical purposes here.
