The Phantom Tollbooth

The Best of The Lemonheads - The Atlantic Years
Artist: The Lemonheads
Label: Atlantic
Length: 37:27 / 12 songs
 
Among the few Boston-based bands to really break big in the Nineties, The Lemonheads first came to national attention in 1992 when their rambunctious cover of Simon & Garfunkel's song "Mrs. Robinson" received heavy rotation on radio stations from coast to coast. (Coincidentally, that song wasn't intended for inclusion on their CD and was actually absent from the very first pressing.) Their success on the so-called alternative scene that immediately followed was buoyed by their own hits, including "Rudderless," "Confetti," and the title track to It's a Shame About Ray, all of which make the requisite reappearances on this compilation.
 
Like Karl Wallinger is to World Party, Evan Dando, as the lead guitarist, vocalist, and only song-writer, is the real name behind The Lemonheads--with all due respect to his friend David Ryan who banged drums on most of the albums. A successful solo artist in her own right and the darling of the Boston music scene, Juliana Hatfield contributed bass and BGV's as a part-time, honorary Lemonhead. It was Dando, however, that got all the attention, and his boyish good looks soon made him the new poster pin-up boy--a move which ruined some of his credibility among the original "alternative scenesters" that first embraced his music. Just a bit too different for pop mainstream radio and becoming too accessible and popular for college radio formats, The Lemonheads were a band that deserved more attention than they got. The thing that everyone can not dismiss is just how good the songs actually were despite the polished made-for-MTV image that went with them. This new collection testifies that Dando knew how to write catchy, accessible songs by the bucketful: sweet and pop-smart, melodic and memorable, without ever being saccharine or just plain stupid.
 
Building their sound on the standard mix of guitar, bass and drums, The Lemonheads songs are unpretentiously simple. Take the sound of vintage R.E.M. songs, and tweak them into more rowdy pop territory, and you have The Lemonheads's formula for instant song satisfaction. Twelve examples are included here, with the heaviest emphasis appropriately on songs from their first full-length and most successful album both critically and fiscally, It's a Shame About Ray. In fact, nearly half of this compilation is devoted to songs from it. The 1993 follow-up album, Come On Feel The Lemonheads offers only four, including the big hit single, "Into My Arms." After that album, The Lemonheads disappeared for a few years, re-emerging with Car Button Cloth in 1996, which didn't do half as well as expected. Accordingly, only two hits, "If I Could Talk I'd Tell You" and "It's All True," are the only repeats. The Lemonheads's 1991 EP, Favorite Spanish Eyes is represented by only one song, "Ride with Me," which serves as the album's more melancholy closer.
 
The Lemonheads's songs fall mostly in the category of benign love tales and slightly absurd views of the malaise of life through suburban sunglasses. The overall happy sound often disguises deeper truths, but Dando, though clever, will never be accused of being profoundly deep. What he does do well, however, is engender hearty sing-along soirees. On "Rudderless" when he sings repeatedly, "a ship without a rudder is like a ship without a rudder is like a ship without a rudder," Dando sounds appropriately lost at sea, which is the point. The listener is pulled in and compelled to sing right along with him like a fellow seafarer longing for something more than he has found.
 
Of particular concern to Christians and moralists is the content of two songs. The first, "My Drug Buddy" (originally listed as just "Buddy"), revels in a relationship with a drug sharing friend. Whereas the song does not explicitly advocate drug use, it is a poignant reminder that people with broken lives often find their only satisfying relationships among their drugged peers instead of the Church that has shunned them. The other, "Big Gay Heart," has an explicit reference to oral sex between men. The song itself clearly operates from the perspective that homosexuality is acceptable, but the story is more about the friendship between a straight and a homosexual male. From that viewpoint, it serves as a gentle reminder that more Christians could afford to befriend gay men (or women for that matter), thus potentially bridging rather than widening the cultural gap between these two camps. On the other hand, some fans will disapprove of this song simply because it makes uncharacteristic use of a slide guitar, resulting in a more country-vibe than most Lemonheads fare.
 
With only 37 minutes of music and no new material, this disc begs the question:  Why weren't more songs from these four albums included? Granted, all the biggest hits are here and paltry few extras, but there are plenty of others that could have been added to give a wise consumer their real money's worth. Among them: "Rockin' Stroll," "Bit Part," and a personal favorite, "Alison's Starting to Happen," all from ...Ray, and from the under-represented Car Button Cloth: "Hospital," "Break Me," "Outdoor Type," and "C'mon Daddy."

In its present condition, this disc only functions as:

  1.  A brief but worthy introduction for someone who never discovered the  wonders of The Lemonheads
  2. A collector's item for the most die-hard fans.
For the rest of us, this collection merely gathers most of their best in one convenient location. Although this makes for an enjoyable listening experience, it does nothing to contribute to their canon or entice the informed buyer who already has the original albums. Yet the quality of the offered tracks does deserve real, repeated attention, and grants another opportunity to sing-along. Happy (Lemon)head-bobbing optional.
 
Track List: Steven S. Baldwin (4/11/99)
 
As an introduction:

Otherwise: