Main menu
Fretplay home Submit tabs

The Lemonheads
The Lemonheads tabs The Lemonheads discography

Channels
Guitar channel Bass channel Guitar videos Reviews

Message Forum
Guitar forum Bass forum Bands and artists Promote your band Recent discussions All categories

Fretplay.com

The Lemonheads guitar tabs

CD reviews

It's a Shame About Ray Collector's Edition

The Lemonheads - It's a Shame About Ray Collector's Edition Audio CD

A fair review of the The Lemonheads "It's a Shame About Ray Collector's Edition" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all The Lemonheads reviews here, or go back to the The Lemonheads tabs.

Band: The Lemonheads
Title: It's a Shame About Ray Collector's Edition
Rating:

Release Date: 2008-03-25
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Rockin Stroll 2: Confetti 3: It's A Shame About Ray 4: Rudderless 5: My Drug Buddy 6: The Turnpike Down 7: Bit Part 8: Alison's Starting To Happen 9: Hannah & Gabi 10: Kitchen 11: Ceiling Fan In My Spoon 12: Frank Mills 13: Mrs. Robinson 14: Shaky Ground 15: It's A Shame About Ray Demo 16: Rockin Stroll Demo 17: My Drug Buddy Demo 18: Hannah & Gabi Demo 19: Kitchen Demo 20: Bit Part Demo 21: Rudderless Demo 22: Ceiling Fan In My Spoon Demo 23: Confetti Demo 24: Two Weeks In Australia 25: It's A Shame About Ray Music Video 26: Ride With Me Live 27: Mrs. Robinson Music Video 28: Being Around Music Video 29: Alison's Starting To Happen Live 30: Hannah & Gabi Music Video 31: Half The Time Music Video 32: Rockin Stroll Music Video 33: Confetti Music Video 34: It's About Time Live 35: My Drug Buddy

An Overlooked Classic
They were a great band but they seemed to have burned out to quickly to make a significant mark. I suppose it could have been easy to forget about the Lemonheads. Evan Dando was either too reckless or too restless to let the band gather enough steam to garner mass appeal, and I for one tossed the Lemonheads into the pile of bands that almost reached their potential. That was a mistake, for two reasons. First of all, the Lemonheads are still with us, having reformed in 2005. Second, they actually did reach their potential, on "It's a Shame about Ray. "
Released in 1992, "Ray" stood out like a glittering prize among the grunge and gangster rap that dominated the market. For its time, it was almost too pleasant, with more melodic hooks and intriguing lyrics than a boatload of contemporary disks. "Confetti" had a lyrical hook that was impossible to shake ("He kinda shoulda sorta would've loved her if he could've. . . "), while the title song sported a melody so timeless that it seems to have always been there. Lead singer and principal songwriter Evan Dando had the `wistful and cute' thing down pat, and women seemed almost magnetically attracted to him. With so much going right, this band had everything it needed to become gigantic, but coulda shoulda woulda. . . .
The thing is, while the band faded to grey, the songs remained, and hearing them again is a revelation of sorts. In retrospect, "It's a Shame about Ray" has everything an album needs to be considered classic. It plays like a greatest hits record, with virtually every song making an impact. "Alison's Starting to Happen," "(I Just Want a) Bit Part (in Your Life)" and "My Drug Buddy" are impossible to forget, so how did I? Add in their rocking interpretation of Paul Simon's "Mrs. Robinson," and you have a virtually perfect pop album, so why didn't the world acknowledge this in 1992? Why wasn't the album on every critic's `best of' list for that year? It didn't receive the recognition it deserved back then, but we now have a chance to reassess the situation. The Collector's Edition not only contains the original album in full, but adds a slew of bonus material too, including a DVD disk that provides an intriguing visual insight to Evan Dando's world in 1992. If the Lemonheads never recorded anything else, "It's a Shame about Ray" should assure their status as one of the best bands of the nineties, even if I almost forgot about them.
A Tom Ryan.

Not worth the extra price
Every song is a gem and the songs have stood the test of time. I consider this one of my all time favorite pop albums. It's an album that's been in, more or less, constant rotation in my disc player since I first bought it in the early nineties. So I was excited to discover that it was being re-released by Rhino in the hopes that they would produce a carefully superior sounding remastered version of this classic alt-rock album. Unfortunatley that's not the case. It sounds nearly identical to the original except they've compressed the sound a bit. If anything it sounds a little harsher than the orginal. The bonus songs are interesting but are 4-track demo quality in sound and performance so they become more of an annoyance in the end. The videos are your standard MTV videos that can be found on the web, if you're feeling nostalgic, and a few forgettable live performances. I highly recommend the album, but I suggest you save your money and get the standard issue disc instead.

A Classic Album!
The DVD looks and sounds amazing, and there should be NO disappointment there - it alone is enough of a reason to buy this package. I was extremely excited when I read that one of my favorite albums was to be re-released with some bonus tracks, and better yet, a bonus DVD of the classic Lemonheads' 'Two Weeks In Australia' video. The CD, however, is *mildly* disappointing. Of course the main album tracks sound as good as ever. Even listening to this today, it sounds as fresh as it did when I first heard it 16 years ago (good God, has it been that long!?). Every song is a gem, and this is folk indie pop at its best. The bonus tracks, however, are nothing to write home about. 'Shaky Ground' was previously released as a b-side. It's a decent song and a nice inclusion, but it's certainly nothing that stands up against the tracks found on the album. The acoustic demo tracks, however, are not that fun of a listen. I always enjoyed getting my hands on Lemonheads' singles that had acoustic versions of Evan's songs, but these don't live up to what has been released as b-sides in the past. Every demo has an annoying 'flange' effect on the voice, and the quality is not very good. Unfortunately, for me, these are unlikely to get repeated listens. The packaging is fairly nice, and it contains a booklet with a couple of pictures and some liner notes, but again, nothing *too* exciting.

Nothing can take away from what a master piece 'It's a Shame About Ray' is. You can always find original copies on Ebay for much cheaper than this pressing, but again, I feel the expanded version is worth it just for the DVD. I feel the bonus tracks could have been better, but oh well. A nice collection all the same.

You can see a complete list of all The Lemonheads discography, or go back to the The Lemonheads tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.