This is a great album if given the appropriate amount of time. Sebadoh are not well-liked by my friends and they are of the opinion that Lou was better off in Dinosaur Jr. than fronting his own band. Pure nonsense if you ask me. I love Dinosaur Jr. for Mascis' awesome playing and You're Living All Over Me is one of the most perfect albums ever written but everything else is very hit-or-miss and later on Mascis began to write songs that sounded like hazy afterthoughts meant to pay his bills. Sebadoh, in my opinion, is all fire and expression. Unlike Jay, I don't feel like Lou ever stopped trying to be a better writer or rested on his laurels... at least in terms of Sebadoh. Lou never made an album as good as You're Living All Over Me but he did make three albums that are better than any other Dino album.
Out of those three, Harmacy gets the least attention. III is all lo-fi mysticism, hopeless ballads and scrappy-charm. Bakesale is the well-produced, amps-on-11 surprise party. So what is Harmacy? Something in between Bakesale and III. More angst and balladry than Bakesale but far too much rock to sound anything like III. The thing that shines here is Lou's voice, songs and melodies. It's really just a messy pop album hidden under some slacker-tendencies that, much like Sebadoh as a whole, loses out on the acclaim it deserves due to Lou's unfortunate reputation as permanent second-fiddle. If you like rooting for the underdog then maybe give Sebadoh a try!
HERE
No comments:
Post a Comment