It’s a Shame About Ray LP 1992
After Nirvana came along and killed the 80s, and the onslaught of MTV and its 120 Minutes’ alt-rock bands that started hitting hard on TV and radio, there was so much interest in what was going to pop up next in the music world. Music was fresh, new genres were sprouting and people were listening.
When I was in junior high at Magoffin in northeast in the early 90s, reading the back pages of Thrasher Magazine kept me informed on good music. I was pointed (luckily) in the direction of bands like Pixies, Dinosaur Jr. and the Dead Milkmen among the funny names that poked at my interest.
With no internet anywhere in sight, learning about music was a little different—TV, magazines and word of mouth were pretty much all you got. Luckily I became friends with some super hip goth-chola girls from Ysleta High School, which I had met the summer before going into high school in 1992, who turned me on to The Lemonheads album It’s a Shame About Ray.
The Lemonheads were tagged tagged musically along with their peers of the same guitar jangle—bands like the Jayhawks and Teenage Fanclub also helped champion the sound known as alternative country (or alt-country).
These alt-country bands took a cue from the original rockers that crossed over into country territory first—The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Flying Burrito Brothers and Big Star—but never sounded throwback, still sounded fresh as if they picked up where those bands left off and took it into their own direction.
The Lemonheads It’s A Shame About Ray was a puzzle piece behind the couch that makes the 90s complete. While most of their 90s contemporaries were a little noisier and grunge music was the main course, The Lemonheads chose to make a mellower album trading out the electric guitars more often and strapping on acoustics for most of the album.
Lead singer and songwriter Evan Dando was the last original member of the Lemonheads when Ray came out in 1992, their second album on major label Atlantic Records. They had started out as a more punk outfit having released 3 albums on indie label Taang! Records but now were smoothing out the sounds and writing better songs.
With a little help from Australian indie-rocker Tom Morgan (of bands Smudge, Sneeze and Godstar), who co-wrote most of the album with Dando, Ray is an album that is melancholy in the way that makes sadness feel good. Most of the songs were written with Morgan while Dando was visiting friends in Australia, talks a lot about little experiences and people he met while there. The songs “Drug Buddy” and “Rudderless” are slowed down acoustic gems that Dando sings his heart out on with the backing vocal help of Juliana Hatfield (of bands Blake Babies, Juliana Hatfield 3) making her the Emmy Lou Harris to his Gram Parsons.
The balance of the album is leveled out by spikier numbers “Rockin Stroll” and “Allison Is Starting to Happen” where Dando plugs the electric guitar back in to thrash it out a bit, but not too much, still keeping the jingle jangle.
Ray is one of those albums that is just under the radar in popularity but is just as influential and definitely deserves to be in the top of the list of the best albums of the 90s along side Loveless, Nevermind and Bandwagonesque.