January 6, 2012

The Lemonheads - 'Hotel Sessions'

An album of unearthed Lemonheads recordings

Album Info

Release Date: January 9, 2012
Producer: Evan Dando
Label: Hall Of Records
Fact: The songs were written by Evan Dando on an acoustic guitar, whilst in a hotel on Bondi Beach, Australia

4 / 10 With bands such as Yuck and Wavves being fairly popular at the moment, and in thrall to the slovenly college indie scene of the early ’90s, there could be a worse time to release an album of unearthed The Lemonheads recordings. However, ‘Hotel Sessions’ is some distance from an ‘]essential archive document’, or even something you ever need to hear’. Catching Lemonheads founder Evan Dando at an idyllic moment in his career arc – his alt.heartthrob status was swelling and he’d not yet started huffing the crack pipe – it features most of the songs from 1993’s ‘Come On Feel The Lemonheads’ taped on a Walkman in a hotel room several months before the album’s release. That wasn’t even their most highly regarded record, and all we learn from these wispy solo offerings is that Lemonheads songs are not improved by persistent cassette hiss and background noise. A shocker, that.

Noel Gardner

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