Sebadoh - Bakesale

Available on vinyl LP.

Bakesale , Sebadoh’s fifth album from 1994, is typically loaded with wryly observed heartbreak, the album revolves around the Lou Barlow/Jason Loewenstein songwriting axis, the pair tag-teaming their way through a mix of crotchety, drug-fugged rockers (License to Confuse, Magnet’s Coil); bruised, slower-paced odes to loves long-since lost (Not Too Amused, Together Or Alone); and those like the dreamily shambolic Skull that fall somewhere in-between. The only exception comes in the shape of Temptation Tide, penned by newcomer Bob Fay (and co-voiced by his partner Anne Slinn), who perched atop Eric Gaffney’s still-warm drum stool for this record and the next.
As with the earlier reissues of Sebadoh III and Bubble & Scrape , this revisitation comes significantly expanded and embellished. Along with the album proper a second disc neatly compiles an array of hard-to-find EPs and straggler tracks, rescuing neophytes from dirty-thumbed fuddlings through Berwick Street used bins and allowing those who’ve grimly clung to dog-eared copies of the original singles to put them into long-overdue semi-retirement.
Barlow, in the newly-penned liner notes, suggests Bakesale isn’t the best Sebadoh album but is at least his most fondly-remembered. What can’t be denied, however, is that the album easily deserves its place in the hearts of those who admire fellow fuzzy-edged slackers Superchunk, Pavement and Guided by Voices as much as those new to the game, who’ll find echoes of the band’s sound fizzling through modern-day collegiate grungesters like Milk Music or Gun Outfit.

TRACKLISTING:
- License to Confuse
- Careful
- Magnet’s Coil
- Not a Friend
- Not Too Amused
- Dreams
- Skull
- Got It
- S. Soup
- Give Up
- Rebound
- Mystery Man
- Temptation Tide
- Drama Mine
- Together or Alone

RIYL: Superchunk, Pavement, Guided By Voices