The Lemonheads - Car Button Cloth (CD 1996)

‘Car Button Cloth’ The Lemonheads’s set from 1996, seems to be a perfect encapsulation of main man Evan Dando’s shambolic talent. The first five or six songs on this record are brilliant: hugely melodic, slacker indie-pop numbers like ‘If I Could Talk I’d Tell You’ with its chiming guitar line, the sub-Dinosaur Jr rock of ‘Break Me’ and the infectiously catchy ‘Hospital’ are tossed off seemingly with ease. I also love the wryly amusing ‘Outdoor Type’ about the little fibs one tells to try to impress a new girlfriend.

These tracks race by leave a big smile on your face, but after ‘Losing My Mind’ with its more experimental air and mumbled vocals the quality does drop sharply. ‘Something’s Missing’, ‘Tenderfoot’ and the tedious closing instrumental ‘Secular Rockulidge’ are uninspired indie-thrash whilst ‘Knoxville Girl’ is an unaffecting pseudo-country number. ‘6ix’ is quite amusing, inspired as it is by the film ‘Se7en’ but overall the second half of the record is disappointing.

‘It’s A Shame About Ray’ remains the band’s most consistently excellent record but this CD has enough bright moments to make it worth having.