Sebadoh

Editor's Review:

To tell you the truth, a small, dark little part of me kind of looked forward to talking some smack about the new Sebadoh album, simply because, while I have always found Lou Barlow & Co. (now including new drummer Russ Pollard) to be quite talented musicians, the band's music has always left a bit of a black cloud hanging over my head, and that can be a real turn off. In fact, I don't like it.

However, when I listened to The Sebadoh, it grew on me rather quickly. By the end of my first listen to the record, I had a new appreciation for this triumvirate of indie rockers. On this, the band's latest effort (due out February 23), Sebadoh manages to retain the seriousness of their songs both lyrically and musically while finding a new, at times harder edge that blends vocal and instrumental harmonies with catchy rock riffs and a bit of much needed fury to go along with the melancholy.

Songs of fear, pain and alienation—the standard fair for the group—take on a new force on The Sebadoh. From the bitterly heavy, pop-strained notes of "It's All You," the album's first cut, through softer numbers like the percussive, acoustic "Tree," which is—sorry to use the term—soft rockin', but in a really good way, The Sebadoh exposes another dimension of this group.

It's not like The Sebadoh will indoctrinate fringe fans like myself into the Church of Sebadoh, but it is certainly a light in the grayness, and a hint that the group is all it's cracked up to be by true fans.

– Max Sidman

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Record Label Sub Pop Records Released April 2001

Tracks 1. It's All You 2. Weird 3. Bird In The Hand 4. Break Free 5. Tree 6. Nick Of Time 7. Flame 8. So Long 9. Love Is Stronger 10. Decide 11. Colorblind 12. Thrive 13. Cuban 14. Sorry 15. Drag Down

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