Review: The Lemonheads - It's A Shame About Ray (Reissue)

Posted on 4 April 2008 | 2 Comments

I distinctly remembering buying the Lemonheads classic album It’s A Shame About Ray when I was 14. It was a fall day and we had driven to the nearest mall so I could go to Sam Goody (or was it Musicland) to get this album. My CD collection was much smaller back then and I poured over every detail, tried to decipher all the mixed up lyrics, and listened to the album over and over. I had this Sony CD boombox with a repeat feature that allowed me to (at one point during that winter) play “Confetti” roughly 250 times in a row. Those were different times and this was a special album. It was one of a few albums that served as a “gateway” into punk rock for me. After buying It’s A Shame About Ray I got Lovey, Lick, Hate Your Friends, and various singles in the Lemonheads back catalog. From there I got into a bunch of other associated groups; The Blake Babies, Juliana Hatfield, Antenna, Velo Deluxe, Buffalo Tom, etc… and the rest just sorta happened.

You have to remember that all this happened before the existence of the Internet; before the information overload. These days, nothing is surprising and nothing goes unnoticed. And even though he was strung out his voice was golden, his songs were memorable, and his persona was unshakable. Back then, Lemonheads front man Evan Dando’s songs straddled the line between pop, punk, and even alt-country before it was fashionable. As amazing as It’s A Shame About Ray was, it was never really more than an alternative rock minor hit (when there still was meaning to the world “alternative.”) I recall seeing the Lemonheads perform at Chicago’s Grant Park (the current home of Lollapalooza) in 1994 and waiting around afterwards to get an autograph from Evan. It never happened.

Yeah, I purchased the follow-up, Come On Feel the Lemonheads, and even recorded a duet of “Into Your Arms” with my sister (in German, no less). It was a good (but not great) album that didn’t hit nearly as hard as It’s A Shame About Ray. It is difficult to adequately put my feelings about Ray into words. I mean, when I started my own band one common thread between founding members was a love for the Lemonheads, Juliana Hatfield, and the like. Without It’s A Shame About Ray I may have just been “like a ship without a rudder.” Who knows though.

Anyhow, It’s A Shame About Ray has been re-released with a bunch of stripped-down bonus demo tracks and a pretty cool DVD called Two Weeks In Australia that also lends some insight into this amazing record. If you don’t already own this, go out and get the reissue. This album is a necessity in everyone’s record collection.

MP3 | The Lemonheads – Confetti It’s A Shame About Ray
MP3 | The Lemonheads – Alison’s Starting To Happen It’s A Shame About Ray

Filed Under: Album Reviews, Just Plain Rock

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