Evan Dando’s alternative pop milestone with plenty of bonus material.
For a moment it looked like Evan Dando could be a big deal with his Lemonheads. So, big in the REM or Pearl Jam sense. With her cover version of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson” and massive MTV airplay, they had succeeded for the first time outside of the sworn fan circles and had enough momentum to place their fifth album IT’S A SHAME ABOUT RAY in the US charts.
COME ON FEEL, released in 1993 and mostly written together with Tom Morgan, mastermind of the Australians Smudge, started exactly there a year later, but opened up a little further to the mainstream. Songs like “Into Your Arms”, “Being Around” or “I’ll Do It Anyway” recorded with Belinda Carlisle are little power pop crackers whose cross-references to college rock and punk of the band’s old days have been subtly blended into the background. Once, in “Rick James Style,” the same guy provides a few funk excursions, while “Big Gay Heart” wallows extensively in the Byrds’ sixties-country twang.
Songs like “Into Your Arms” are little power pop crackers
In short, Dando and his band delivered throughout the recording session with Godstar’s Nic Dalton on bass, David Ryan on drums and Juliana Hatfeld on backing vocals. The album’s anniversary edition comes with a good dozen songs, often stripped down, that fans should be familiar with, including acoustic demos of the album tracks and a slew of covers. They have always been Dando’s strength, and they are the same here: when he croons down Buddy Holly’s “Learning The Game”, the beat cracker “Little Black Egg” or Cole Porter’s little lynch mob “Miss Otis Regrets” without any embellishment, he’s the one Far away from college rock, it’s all about the song.
It’s unfortunate that things stalled after this album. Alternative rock was counted out, and Dando also got bogged down: Three years later, the rather disorganized follow-up album CAR BUTTON CLOTH didn’t even reach the Billboard Top 100.