THE BARGAIN BUY: The Lemonheads: Laughing All The Way to The Cleaners

 |   |  1 min read

The Lemonheads: Just Can't Take It Anymore
THE BARGAIN BUY: The Lemonheads: Laughing All The Way to The Cleaners

By happy coincidence, the very day that the Lemonheads' cover of Leonard Cohen's Hey That's No Way to Say Goodbye was pulled out From the Vaults this 2011 double disc -- subtitled The Best of -- seemed to leap out of the rack and attach itself to my credit card.

These 47 non-chronological tracks draw from all part of the band's career and start with songs from their debut album Hate Your Friends in '87, pick up their much acclaimed and diverse covers (Suzanne Vega's Luka, Mike Nesmith's Different Drum, Paul Simon's Mrs Robinson, Rainer Ptacek's Rudy with a Flashlight, Gram Parson's Brass Buttons, New Kids on the Bock's Step by Step etc) and up to material from Car Button Cloth, their '96 album before the split up.

Of course they reformed and did their covers album Varshon in '09 (Parson's Just Can't Take It Anymore among the songs, and Green Fuz from that closes things here) but the good stuff came on their albums Lovey, It's a Shame About Ray and Come on Feel the Lemonheads which are well represented here with memorable songs like Into Your Arms, Big Gay Heart, Ride with Me, My Drug Buddy, The Outdoor Type . . .

JB_HZ_CHEAP_longBy drawing from the best of country-rock, power pop, guitar jangle rock, acoustic ballads and indie-rock, Evan Dando and the Lemonheads built an impressive body of work and, as Michael Heatley observes in the cover notes, Dando might have had his problems but even now you rule him out at your peril.

The tracklisting for each CD might be flipped in the booklet, but this excellent double disc is just $20 at JB Hi-Fi stores here, which makes it this week's Bargain Buy

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   The Bargain Buy articles index

THE BARGAIN BUY: Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band; Original Album Series

THE BARGAIN BUY: Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band; Original Album Series

In the liner notes to the Wright/Watts Band album Hot Heat and Sweet Groove in 1967, the comedian Bill Crosby -- then still a decade away from being the mainstream American television character he... > Read more

THE BARGAIN BUY: Eddie Floyd; Knock On Wood

THE BARGAIN BUY: Eddie Floyd; Knock On Wood

One of the classsic Stax songs from the mid-Sixties, the title track here was among singer Eddie Floyd's best known songs and down the decades has had numerous covers (Otis Redding, Aretha... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE HIGHLY PERSONAL QUESTIONNAIRE: Gray Vickers of These Four Walls

THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE HIGHLY PERSONAL QUESTIONNAIRE: Gray Vickers of These Four Walls

Now based in Australia and with a new album This is Not a Future just released, former Aucklanders These Four Walls are pretty much stuck inside them when it comes to promoting an album which... > Read more

Tahuna Breaks: Reflections (Chewy/Rhythmethod)

Tahuna Breaks: Reflections (Chewy/Rhythmethod)

While I understand the wide appeal of Fat Freddy's Drop -- a laidback distillation of reggae, soul and so forth -- it is too mellow for my taste. Tahuna Breaks -- who also distill elements of... > Read more