Kerosene Hat

Cracker

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 24, 1993)
• Original Release Date: August 24, 1993
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Virgin Records Us
• ASIN: B000000W4I
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #37,160 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. Low

2. Movie Star

3. Get off This

4. Kerosene Hat

5. Take Me Down to the Infirmary

6. Nostalgia

7. Sweet Potato

8. Sick of Goodbyes

9. I Want Everything

10. Lonesome Johnny Blues

11. Let's Go for a Ride

12. Loser

13. [Blank Track]

14. [Blank Track]

15. Hi-Desert Biker Meth Lab

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Many alternative-rock fans considered Camper Van Beethoven an important band, but I wasn't among them. Guitarist/vocalist David Lowerey always seemed smarmy and ridiculously happy with his own cleverness. Lowrey's new band, Cracker, has the potential to be even more annoying, since the quartet places the spotlight solely on its leader and songwriter, but its self-titled 1992 debut was a strong effort with a smart, infectious single ("Teen Angst"), and Kerosene Hat is even better. Recorded with stripped- down simplicity on an abandoned soundstage at the edge of the Mojave desert, the album concentrates on the band's undeniably catchy country-flavored garage punk. "Go For A Ride" is perfect highway music, and the single "Low" is almost as good as "Teen Angst." Unfortunately, the most inspired title and song topic-"Hi Desert Biker Meth Lab"-turns out to be wasted on a short snippet of noise and studio chatter. --Jim DeRogatis

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything seems like a dream..., May 12, 2004

By	"howlinw" (California USA) - See all my reviews

One of the first albums in my now gigantic collection, Kerosene Hat is an odd man out, difficult to categorize despite its familiar roots-rock sound. Oddly romantic-sounding without trying to be (actually, all the more so for the fact that its blunt irony and unforced wittiness removes all "romatic" cliches leaving it sounding surprisingly honest and clear of hackneyed sentimentalism) it seems closer in hindsight to "alt-country" than to any of its grunge-rock contemporaries. I'd place it in the same basic category as the Jayhawks' "Hollywood Town Hall" which came out around the same time. What amazes me is that an album like this actually contained some "hits" which appealed to the popular consciousness enough to get Cracker on MTV and all over burgeoning alt-rock radio stations. Usually bands this intelligent are doomed to obscurity, for record geeks like me (and possibly you) to find and treasure while our girlfriends roll their eyes.

Like one reviewer below, I too would listen to this album back in high school and dream of beautiful women. I see no shame in that. It's an album that induces such hopefulness (or wishful thinking), and that's saying something for it. No it's not "Exile on Main Street" but it's in that vein for those of us who lived and breathed the early alt-rock movement, before crass commericialism sucked all the life out of it.

I'll conclude this diatribe by urging Cracker to create another album this good. I know they'll never read this, but in case someone who knows them does, please pass on the message.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Soundtrack for Life, October 19, 2004

By	L. W. Ruthen "Red Pencil" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm ordering Cracker's The Golden Age, which, for some reason, I don't own, and I started reading the reviews for Kerosene Hat. It's very validating to read that others feel like I do--that this album is pure brilliance from start to finish. I've had it for years, of course, and keep returning to it again and again (along with the 3 other Cracker albums I own). It's one of the 15 or so CDs I have that never get to rest for long. One of my best memories of it, however, came only a couple of years ago when I discovered that, like me, my cousin is a huge Cracker fan. A few months later, a group of us were walking to a free Cracker show at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, New York, and he and I started singing "Take Me Down to the Infirmary" at the top of our lungs. Every time I listen to the album, I hear something new to love. The songs are so well written and executed while sounding spontaneous and real, not slick and manufactured. I like that Cracker is not hugely popular. I don't want to share with just anybody. In conclusion, here's a great description of the band I read in some online review a few years ago (can't remember where, or the exact wording, but thanks, whoever you are....): "Cracker is the most normal weird band out there and the weirdest normal band out there."

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic rock album lyrically and musically., May 16, 1999

By A Customer

A follow-up to their debut masterpiece, this collection brings more electric guitar-work to the mix in a way reminescent of Keith Richards and Mick Taylor. Full of catchy riffs, a stellar rythtym section, and open-throttle vocals, this melodic work represents what a four-piece rock band is all about. "Nostalgia" captures the wonder of the space age in an upbeat, contagious, guitar-woven gem. The intros to "Take Me Down To The Infirmary" and its sister song "I Want Everything" are beautifully sculpted phrases for which the Gibson Les Paul was created to inspire. The fun secret track #69, "Eurotrash Girl", is a live favorite. Three chords never sounded so good as in "Get Off This". David Lowery and Johnny Hickman harmonize to like a boy-girl team adding another sweet dimension to their songs. The second and last of their great albums and last one with bassist, backing vocalist and co-writer David Faragher and drummer Michael Urbano.