Classic album re-issue.
This re-release special edition of Sebadoh’s fourth album has a mass of extra material; in all an extra 15 bonus songs of lo-fi goodness to be had. Sebadoh have to be the quintessential indie band, forged from a desire to create something democratic, a collective that wrote and performed their own individual songs where no one person was dominant. This approach meant that albums could vary in style from song to song, and live performances saw instrument and vocalist changes every few minutes. This worked well for a time and they produced some of the most influential indie-rock of the time along with bands like Pavement.
The re-release of this album, originally put out in 1993 coincides with a reunion tour by the classic line-up of the band which has been ongoing for the last year or so. “Bubble and Scrape” was the last of their albums at the time to feature founding member Eric Gaffney before tensions in the band caused the split and a change of direction. The fact that this album was made during a time of tension results in it featuring some very raw and quirkily experimental tunes; the split in styles is very evident all the way through and swings between Barlow’s soft vocals and folk inspired melodies, Gaffney’s fuzzy, psychedelic noise experiments and Loewenstein’s pop-infused rock numbers. The result is definitely eclectic and varied with each member having their own very distinct sound and style, and as is often the case with Sebadoh it’s easy to pick a favourite songwriter.
There are some classic tunes here; opener ‘Soul and Fire’ is vintage Barlow, a lovely fuzzy guitar riff, smooth vocals and sweet lyrics, it’s a great way to start an album. ‘Sister’ is almost punk in approach and feel, darker and more obviously melodic with off kilter riffs and harsher vocals. ‘Sixteen’ really shows off Loewenstein’s song-writing skills, with a catchy one and a half minute poppy classic which sounds like the kind of thing that Polaris would have done for the soundtrack to TV show “Pete and Pete” and ‘Bouquet for a Siren’ is a manic, jagged, psychedelic noise fest, experimental nuttiness with off key guitar ramblings, but still joyfully tuneful. Overall, a brilliant original album done justice by being re-released with so many extra tracks that it can’t fail to be a must have for fans.