It's a Shame About Ray [Collector's Edition, Import]

I was extremely excited when I read that one of my favorite albums was to be re-released with some bonus tracks, and better yet, a bonus DVD of the classic Lemonheads' 'Two Weeks In Australia' video. The DVD looks and sounds amazing, and there should be NO disappointment there - it alone is enough of a reason to buy this package. The CD, however, is *mildly* disappointing. Of course the main album tracks sound as good as ever. Even listening to this today, it sounds as fresh as it did when I first heard it 16 years ago (good God, has it been that long!?). Every song is a gem, and this is folk indie pop at its best. The bonus tracks, however, are nothing to write home about. 'Shaky Ground' was previously released as a b-side. It's a decent song and a nice inclusion, but it's certainly nothing that stands up against the tracks found on the album. The acoustic demo tracks, however, are not that fun of a listen. I always enjoyed getting my hands on Lemonheads' singles that had acoustic versions of Evan's songs, but these don't live up to what has been released as b-sides in the past. Every demo has an annoying 'flange' effect on the voice, and the quality is not very good. Unfortunately, for me, these are unlikely to get repeated listens. The packaging is fairly nice, and it contains a booklet with a couple of pictures and some liner notes, but again, nothing *too* exciting.

Nothing can take away from what a master piece 'It's a Shame About Ray' is. You can always find original copies on Ebay for much cheaper than this pressing, but again, I feel the expanded version is worth it just for the DVD. I feel the bonus tracks could have been better, but oh well. A nice collection all the same.

I suppose it could have been easy to forget about the Lemonheads. They were a great band but they seemed to have burned out to quickly to make a significant mark. Evan Dando was either too reckless or too restless to let the band gather enough steam to garner mass appeal, and I for one tossed the Lemonheads into the pile of bands that almost reached their potential. That was a mistake, for two reasons. First of all, the Lemonheads are still with us, having reformed in 2005. Second, they actually did reach their potential, on "It's a Shame about Ray."
Released in 1992, "Ray" stood out like a glittering prize among the grunge and gangster rap that dominated the market. For its time, it was almost too pleasant, with more melodic hooks and intriguing lyrics than a boatload of contemporary disks. "Confetti" had a lyrical hook that was impossible to shake ("He kinda shoulda sorta would've loved her if he could've..."), while the title song sported a melody so timeless that it seems to have always been there. Lead singer and principal songwriter Evan Dando had the `wistful and cute' thing down pat, and women seemed almost magnetically attracted to him. With so much going right, this band had everything it needed to become gigantic, but coulda shoulda woulda....
The thing is, while the band faded to grey, the songs remained, and hearing them again is a revelation of sorts. In retrospect, "It's a Shame about Ray" has everything an album needs to be considered classic. It plays like a greatest hits record, with virtually every song making an impact. "Alison's Starting to Happen," "(I Just Want a) Bit Part (in Your Life)" and "My Drug Buddy" are impossible to forget, so how did I? Add in their rocking interpretation of Paul Simon's "Mrs. Robinson," and you have a virtually perfect pop album, so why didn't the world acknowledge this in 1992? Why wasn't the album on every critic's `best of' list for that year? It didn't receive the recognition it deserved back then, but we now have a chance to reassess the situation. The Collector's Edition not only contains the original album in full, but adds a slew of bonus material too, including a DVD disk that provides an intriguing visual insight to Evan Dando's world in 1992. If the Lemonheads never recorded anything else, "It's a Shame about Ray" should assure their status as one of the best bands of the nineties, even if I almost forgot about them.
A Tom Ryan

I consider this one of my all time favorite pop albums. Every song is a gem and the songs have stood the test of time. It's an album that's been in, more or less, constant rotation in my disc player since I first bought it in the early nineties. So I was excited to discover that it was being re-released by Rhino in the hopes that they would produce a carefully superior sounding remastered version of this classic alt-rock album. Unfortunatley that's not the case. It sounds nearly identical to the original except they've compressed the sound a bit. If anything it sounds a little harsher than the orginal. The bonus songs are interesting but are 4-track demo quality in sound and performance so they become more of an annoyance in the end. The videos are your standard MTV videos that can be found on the web, if you're feeling nostalgic, and a few forgettable live performances. I highly recommend the album, but I suggest you save your money and get the standard issue disc instead.