THE LEMONHEADS - COME ON FEEL... (30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION)

Released: 19/05/23

Everyone knows that It’s a Shame About Ray is a great album, but the re-issue of the follow-up Come On Feel is a brilliant reminder that Evan Dando and co’s sophomore effort was the debut's equal. There are few people as good as Dando at writing sweet (and bitter-sweet) indie-grunge pop, and Come On Feel has its fill of bona fide classics – a stage-diver baiting, overdrive-heavy ‘Great Big No’; the lovely ‘Into Your Arms’; the Gram Parson-channeling ‘Big Gay Heart’; and the psych-cowboy-skiffle of ‘Being Around’ – but the LP also hits harder than It's a Shame, both lyrically (‘Favorite T’), and sonically, as on the heavy-grunge ‘Style’, which sounds uncannily like Queens of the Stone Age by way of early Foo Fighters – before either band were a thing. 

What’s more, this expanded 30th anniversary edition comes with a wealth of unreleased demos, alternative versions and rarities – as well as some excellent covers, including the Cole Porter standard ‘Miss Otis Regrets’, Buddy Holly’s ‘Learning the Game’, and the aforementioned Parsons’ classic ‘Streets of Baltimore’. Right, I’m off to watch Reality Bites.