Lovey

Lemonheads | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Original Release Date: August 21, 1990
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Atlantic / Wea
• ASIN: B000002IPU
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #43,610 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great Starter For Mellower Lemonheads Era, January 15, 2009

By 

F. Nava "lover of music and film" (Texas USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lovey (Audio CD)

It seems that Lemonheads fans are split into two categories: Pre-"Lovey" and Post-"Lovey."

Pre-"Lovey" had the band in a harder, more punkish style.

Post-"Lovey" had the band in a mellower, more melodic pop style.

It was not until the following album, "It's A Shame About Ray," that the band was pushed into headliner status. However, one can see that it was "Lovey" where the transition took place, bridging both eras. A little hard in some places (though not as hard as earlier stuff) and a little pop in other places.

Whether you love the older or later versions of the band, "Lovey" is a good album, but, in my opinion, not as good as what was yet to come (as I am in the group that prefers the later Lemonheads).

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hard not to love "Lovey", May 11, 2000

By 

Sal Nudo (Champaign, Illinois) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lovey (Audio CD)

"Lovey" opens with a group of cheerleaders cheering enthusiastically, which devolves to pained screaming, which leads to some rocking music. When the instruments come together in unison, after a purposely sluggish start, a great tune, and eventually a great album, kicks in. On "Ballarat" and other tunes, Evan Dando sounds similar to Kurt Cobain, during a time when hardly anyone knew who Cobain was. And that's certainly fitting, given that this album represents a burst of creative rock 'n' roll energy during the early 1990s.

"Lovey" features several great tunes: "Half the Time" is a sweet, mid-tempo tune that's sugary but not lightweight. "Ride With Me" also contains a feathery sound, sweet and harmonic, but with a tinge of grittiness that supplements Dando's sometimes bored and wary aura. Though many of his vocals are mumbled, you've got to love Dando's childlike, everyday lyrics that simultaneously manage to convey humor and the weight of the world. "Lovey's" coolest song is "Li'l Seed," a rocker where Dando and his friends take a stand on a subject near and dear to their hearts. (Hint: the seed of which they speak ain't for growing corn). Guest musician Corey Loog Brennan plays an awesome guitar solo on "Li'l Seed," and contributes on "(The) Door." "Stove" follows an endearingly simple formula, and is gone before you realize how great it was.

These tunes vary in sound from dreamy to mosh-ready. At times, the lively instrumentation is a hyper contrast to Dando's indifferent baritone, and there's a coolness and substance to these songs that prevent them from ever going out of style. Some may find The Lemonheads forgettable; I find them irresistable.

3.0 out of 5 stars Starts-off So Good that it Makes the Album as a Whole Extra Frustrating, September 27, 2011

By 

The Incredible Pete - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Lovey (Audio CD)

I would argue that the first 4 tracks off of "Lovey" are the best songs that the Lemonheads ever waxed. "Ballarat" has an ominous vibe to it completely unlike anything else that I've heard by the band with it's distorted vocals and the ghostly "oohs" and "ahhs" provided by a female vocalist during the refrain . The folk-tinged "Half the Time" is indicative of the sort of songs the band would release on their next outing, "It's A Shame About Ray", but the shoddy production actually raises it a notch above those songs in my opinion, as it creates a feeling of intimacy that was rarely captured on "Ray". "Year of the Cat" is an absolute masterpiece, maniacally shifting between a number of weird-ass dynamics before finally settling into a fast 3-chord groove for the remainder of it's criminally short duration, and "Ride With Me" is a pleasantly downbeat, largely accoustic number.

Unfortunately, the tracks that follow don't have much personality. While they're loaded with humorous, ironic lyrics, the musical backing is extremely generic, and those funny lyrics are often quietly muttered out in a way that's unintelligible. It sounds like Dinosaur Jr.-lite. The tedium is alleviated a bit in the last third with their pretty-but-forgettable cover of Gram Parson's "Brass Buttons", and the untitled track at the end of the album, a schizophrenic answering machine recording of a woman rambling on in unassociated Spanish phrases among other things, got a deep laugh out of me the first time that I heard it. When one of your best tracks is a skit, though, you know that your album is in trouble.