The Lemonheads - It's A Shame About Ray [30th Anniversary Edition]

Some records just sound like being young. Released in June 1992, It's a Shame About Ray was the album that turned Evan Dando from cult scuzz-punk into an unlikely alt-rock heartthrob, and it remains the Lemonheads' defining statement. Over thirteen songs and barely half an hour, Dando figured out how to bottle teenage longing and lust inside two-minute pop songs that never overstay their welcome. Critic Everett True called it "a 30-minute insight into what it's like to live hard and fast and loose and happy with like-minded buddies, fuelled by a shared love for similar bands and drugs and booze and freedom," and that about covers it.

The songwriting is the whole show here. "My Drug Buddy" drifts along on one of the great hungover melodies, "Rudderless" chimes and shrugs, and the title track packs a full coming-of-age story into a couple of verses. Juliana Hatfield's basslines and harmonies give everything a warm push, the Robb Brothers keep the production loose and sunlit, and the record never once tries too hard. It's effortless in the way only carefully made things can be.

More than three decades on, It's a Shame About Ray still feels weightless and wise at once, a scruffy classic that captures a specific carefree moment better than almost anything from its era.

This edition, lovingly reissued by Fire Records, brings the album back to vinyl with a download card loaded with extras, including the 1992 KCRW session take of "My Drug Buddy" with Juliana Hatfield, B-sides from the "It's a Shame About Ray" and "Confetti" singles, and a track from the "Mrs. Robinson/Being Round" EP. An essential pressing of an indie-pop landmark.