Lemonheads Entertainment Art "It's a Shame About Ray -Collector's Edition" (Rhino) Released March 25, 2008

Labels have been reissuing albums for years, from albums being remastered to having bonus material of demos, outtakes and live recordings, that have often given uneven and mix-results. However, Rhino is one of those record companies that came along and has up the ante on finding a wealth of bonus material for re-releases for years. The care that has been given to their releases are excellent and make me excited to see what album they are going to weave their magic on next.

Speaking of, they have now worked their magic on the Lemonheads 1992 seminal album, It’s A Shame About Ray. IASAR was their breakthrough album and probably their most cohesive to date. Many of you may only know the album as the one with the Simon and Garfunkel cover, but it’s much more than a one hit album.

Evan Dando is great at writing 2/3 minute pop songs and he was at the height of his songwriting abilities in the early ‘90s. Unfortunately, the same thing that fueled him creatively, contributed to his downfall – drugs. They only made two more albums before breaking up in 1997 and even though they have since reformed, this is the album that shows them in their innocents, their youth, their prime.

The original IASAR album clocks in just shy of 30 minutes and is a collection of 12 beautifully written original compositions and 2 covers. Released during the grunge era, Dando appeared on the scene offering up his own indie-pop sound of epithetic stories and is a gem from beginning to end. Backing him up was drummer Tom Morgan, who also co-authors the title track and “Bit Part.” Bass player and former Blake Babies, Juliana Hatfield rounded out the three piece, providing some nice backing vocals, in particular on tracks like “My Drug Buddy,” where she adds the prefect accent to the closing of the tune.

IASAR is one of those albums that freeze a moment in time, but even with that said, the album still holds up as a solid piece of work and still sounds fresh today. Now with this special Rhino deluxe 2-disc CD+DVD reissue, you have everything you need to enjoy the album again and again.

Disc 1 includes the original album including the added Simon and Garfunkel cover, “Mrs. Robinson.” If that isn’t enough you have 10 bonus tracks of 9 demos and one unreleased track. “Shaky Ground” the unreleased track is essentially in demo form with just Dando on acoustic. It easily could have fit right in on IASAR and is nice that is has finally seen the light of day. The demos are a bit rough sounding and were obviously recorded on a simple recorder. Much like the demos that Pete Townshend has releases with his Scoop albums, Dando’s songs were essentially ready to go by the time he brought them into the studio with the band. Anyone who is a fan of the album and Dando himself, will enjoy hearing these demos rough or not, they give us another take on theses classics. Almost all the tracks are here in demo form with only “The Turnpike Down” and “Alison’s Starting to Happen” missing and of course the 2 covers.

Disc 2, entitled “Two Weeks in Australia,” is the DVD and includes their music videos and live footage of that era. The live tracks that also offer an optional commentary track, are “Ride With Me,” “Alison’s Starting to Happen” and “It’s About Time.” The eight music videos are all here from that era including the “Mrs. Robinson” video that was more of a teaser trailer for the re-release of The Graduate film onto DVD at the time.

It’s A Shame About Ray is an album that shines with this reissue and it’s nice to see they have taken the time to make it a must have. The music business and record sales have definitely changed since it’s 1992 release, but this two disc set is worth the money and worthy to replace your old copy.

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