Years before going overground with a cover of Mrs Robinson and The whole Shame About Ray’ upwards trajectory and superstardom king of the slackers Evan Dando was besties with Oasis and perenial clusterfuck of drama on the live scene through the pages of Melody Maker and NME but never stopped making records going from the early days of the rather excellent records that were ‘Hate your Friends’, ‘Lovey’,’Lick’, ‘Creator’ before going overground and offered up the iconic stuff and big chart hits like ‘Car Button Cloth’ ‘ Shame About Ray’ and ‘Come On Feel’ before disappearing back into the murky underground Dando never stopped making music doing cover albums playign live as a band or solo this is his first Lemonheads studio album in a couple of decades.

It’s been a long time promised, and a cast of collaborators came and went, it’s a bold, melodic return to form with flashes of all previous models of the ban,d from the soppy acoustic folkified ramblings to the chaotic, rough house punk rock ‘In The Margin’. Dando has certainly found his mojo.

Now based in Brazil, where much of the album was recorded, Dando’s relocation in recent years has given him time to focus his attention on getting this done and on our turntables. ‘Wild Thing’ is powerful with big guitar and his distinctive vocal delivery front and centre. The laid-back acoustic junk of ‘Be In’ sits nicely between the happy-go-lucky uptempo swagger of ‘Cell Phone Blues’, another great Dando tune.

If you want more wild, unhinged meanderings, then the Neil Young styleings on ‘Togetherness Is All I’m After’ with distorted guitars strumming big chords over a slow groove and big vocal melody is classic Dando.

J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr), Juliana Hatfield, and Tom Morgan rejoin the fold, alongside producer Bryce Goggin (Pavement, Antony and the Johnsons), Nashville’s Erin Rae, John Strohm of the Blake Babies and Nick Saloman of The Bevis Frond. Adam Green of cult New York favourites The Moldy Peaches also contributes as co-writer on the aforementioned country detour that is ‘Wild Thing’.

You’ve got the groovy bass-heavy ‘Marauders’ offering something funky, whilst the title track is darker and punchier. ‘The Key OF Victory’ is an acoustic meandering campfire jaunt before the dreamy ‘Roky’ kisses the listener goodbye, and a very well-received new album from The Lemonheads that will, in time, sit proudly alongside some of this band’s fine catalogue of releases. In a different time from the last time we got new Lemonheads material, Dando has delivered a strong album that is worthy of the name. Let’s not leave it another twenty years if there’s more of this in the tank.

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Author: Dom Daley