Customer Reviews

Best of the Lemonheads: The Atlantic Years

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Evan Dando and his rotating cast of Lemonheads are one of those bands that seemed on the brink of becoming huge stars, cut a near flawless album, and then watched it all mysteriously slip away in a mess of drugs, alcohol and ego. Dando had the movie star good looks, his band cut easy to digest jangle-pop with his warm voice delivering the lyrics. Imagine a catchier REM being fronted with a voice like The Smithereens' Pat DiNizio.

"The Atlantic Years" covers The Lemonheads' four album tenure with that classic label, ignoring the punkier indie years and the albums Dando cut after he cleaned up. But it also ignores Lovey (the song "Ride With Me" is an acoustic remake), and only features two tracks from Car Button Cloth. Which means that, out of 12 songs, 9 come from the albums It's a Shame About Ray and Come on Feel the Lemonheads.

While these are Dando's best songs, there's obviously a lot of room for an expanded edition. The almost hit from "Come On Feel...., "Into Your Arms," is here, and no-one has ever rocked Paul Simon the way Dando did with the remake of "Mrs. Robinson." Dando's gal-pal Juliana Hatfield is a frequent guest vocalist. But given the somewhat lopsided division of songs, you'd be excused for just picking up "Ray" and waiting for a deluxe best of to inevitably arrive.

I love em. Esp Evan Dando is still making records. I was thrilled to find 2 relatively new issues, so I re-bought all the old stuff, even a used "Lovey". I think the Lemonheads are very sweetly cynical in a very post-modern way. It is GREAT pop music.

The Lemonheads were one of my favorite alternative bands in college. It is a shame that the band lacked stability both in performers and music and eventually faded away.I think Evan Dando is an excellent lead singer/musician but the band just never could get over the final hurdle of success.

Kenneth Haft