Dayglo

Love Battery | Format: Vinyl

Product Details

• Vinyl
• Label: Sub Pop
• ASIN: B001AYBE1O
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,059,682 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

In 1992 Love Battery recorded and released what many consider their finest record Dayglo. In the Sub Pop catalog, Dayglo was listed as "Blotter not included" a play on "Batteries not included" instead referring to LSD.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Grunge Defined, July 14, 2003

By 

Daufhin Thorndike (New York , NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dayglo (Audio CD)

Love Battery have been fixtures in the Seattle music scene since early 1989 when they cut their first singles with legendary producer Jack Endino. They rose out of the ashes of leader Ron Nine's band Room Nine, which never made an impact outside of the local music scene, but remain somewhat of a cult fascination among the Love Battery faithful, and those few who experienced the music in the late 1980's.
Love Battery is one of those bands that make you scratch your head and wonder why the hell they never went anywhere commercially. They seemed to have all the ingredients- inventive songwriting, intelligent lyrics, lots of guitars, and hooks galore. They were grunge before grunge became Grunge. And "Dayglo", their first full length album for Sub Pop, has that classic grunge sound we all became familiar with through Nirvana, Alice In Chains, and Soundgarden. It is truly a masterpiece from the first track to the last- and definitely one of the most overlooked albums ever.
The genius of "Dayglo" lies in the recording process. On their own, the ten songs that make up the album would still stand tall, but what elevates it to greatness and perfection is in the approach used to craft it. It is obviously cut live in the studio, and in doing so, preserves the energy and raw spirit that was the undeniable strength of the band. Recorded at local Egg Studios with recording master Conrad Uno and John Auer, this method proved a masterstroke of genius. Every track thunders with power and explosiveness, and there is not a weak moment on the entire record. The songs flow from one to other seamlessly and alternate between heavy, driving distortion- and the complete opposite of that, such as on "Side(With You), a powerful ballad with acoustic guitars and a wrenching guitar solo that will induce a cringe as Kevin Whitworth bends his strings toward the ceiling. Other songs, such as "Blonde", feature an indecipherable vocal buried deeply in a gorgeous bath of feedback and guitar leads. But, as is the case throughout this entire album- it is a perfect expression of the song and fits like in no other way. The next track, "Dayglo" begins with a slow mid-tempo drum intro which builds and then explodes into a wicked lead guitar and full-on band assault that virtually drowns out the vocals for the majority of the song. The breaks in between the chorus and verses are brilliant, swimming leisurely in a wall of sound and then slamming furiously again into the verse- which is the hardest, most aggressive moments of the tune- and perhaps the whole album. The closer, "23 Modern Stories" is a distortion-free Beatle-esque type of song, relying heavily on the vocal talents of Ron Nine and the often overlooked harmonies of the rest of the band.
Listening to this album, you discover new sounds with every new listen. Throughout this review I have raved about the way it was recorded, and unless you take the time to open your mind up to the experience, it may not be altogether obvious the first time you put it on. I recommend that you lie on your bed, turn off all the lights, and clear your mind. Put on a pair of headphones, close your eyes and turn up the volume. I swear to god, it will sound as though you are right there in the room with the band as this is being played. You will hear mistakes, dropped keys, between song banter, and even the fingers of Kevin Whitworth and Ron Nine slide across their guitar strings (Damaged) as they play. It is , literally, like nothing you have ever heard or will ever hear again. "Dayglo" is quite convincingly, a masterpiece- a singular moment in time when everything came together at the right time, in the right place, and with the four right musicians. Hearing it today, it is still as fresh as ever. With every listen you are transported to that little studio in Washington state where four musicians were pouring their hearts into making ten songs of sonic perfection. Before Nirvana, before "Singles", and definitely before we all knew about grunge, these guys were creating it. And this is a perfect documentation of that.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ageless classic, August 27, 2004

By 

William Brian Sachs (baltimore,maryland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dayglo (Audio CD)

As daufhin thorndike has so correctly stated an attractive feature that conveys this bands ability to give the listener an eargasm is the brilliant crafstmanship of those at the helm in the recording and mixing processes.I have this band's earlier releases and although they are most definitely desirable in their own right they do convey the message that something better may be steaming down the tracks.Well that portent of good things to come is 'Dayglo'.I would however point out to perspective purchasers that Dayglo though brimming with a heaping helping of heavy grungy goodness is also laced with elements of jazzoid-beebop coolness,trippy psychedelia and folksy janglings.If you don't care for these musical paths individually you will be most pleasantly pleased and overwhelmed to hear how well all these diverse styles are blended together so effectively.This album always manages to sound fresh and it always seems to satisfy no matter what mood I'm in.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cure meets Nirvana., April 2, 2004

By 

Nick (Round Rock, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dayglo (Audio CD)

This is a bad-ass band from Seattle that is extremely overlooked, so look into them.