Thursday 11 April 2013

Cassette experiment day 52 - The Lemonheads 'Come on feel The Lemonheads'

One of the things that has surprised me about the cassette experiment so far has been the totally unexpected discovery of some classic cassettes from the early 1990s – we’ve already had Depeche Mode, Half Man Half Biscuit, Matthew Sweet and Steve Earle.
Today we’re going to have another minor classic from the early ‘90s, 1993’s ‘Come on feel The Lemonheads’ by (you’ve guessed it) The Lemonheads.
Evan and the gang (with a mixed bag of guests including Belinda Carlisle, Rick James and, inevitably, Juliana Hatfield) set off at a cracking rate with one of the great opening threesomes of the 1990s, ‘The great big no’, ‘Into your arms’ and ‘It’s about time’. It’s fairly obvious that pace and quality of this nature can’t be maintained, so after the opening trio the album becomes a little more erratic.
‘Being around’ is one of the all-time great ‘unorthodox’ love songs with tremendous and constantly inventive lyrics throughout. My personal favourite on the album is ‘Big gay heart’ with lyrics famously altered to ‘duck my sick’ for the radio-friendly single version. I can confirm from recent personal experience that ‘Big gay heart’ is one of the greatest wall-emulsioning sing-along tunes ever penned.
‘Rick James Style’ features the legendary Mr James himself popping up with guest vocals on a side 2 re-working of the side 1 track ‘Style’. I love Rick James, but was a touch disappointed to find that the lyrics relate being stoned (or not being stoned). I’d rather hoped that the lyrics would be a tribute to Mr James own particular penchant for tight trousers and the wet-look curly perm.
One final note – ‘The Jello fund’ may just be what is generally known as tuneless rubbish.
Label – Atlantic
Year - 1993

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