Sebadoh
(Domino)
Lou Barlow sounds ready to conquer the world in the opening moments of Bubble and Scrape. He also sounds ready to cry, but that's what makes a song like "Soul and Fire" sound so poignant after 15 years. No Conor Oberst trembling here. Just Barlow weighing in on love's last tired gasp with a bittersweet ballad that starts like an indie-kid hung up on Harrison's solo years and then gets even better as he works his way through numbing resignation to "I think our love is coming to an end."
That same mood colors nearly every Barlow highlight, from the semi-psychedelic fuzz-guitar grind of "Two Years Two Days," with its opening sigh of "Now that you have your doubts, will you always be looking for a way out," to "Cliché," a ballad that kicks in with Who-worthy bombast as Barlow asks, "Did you think I was dead inside?" Even when he does let loose and hits you with a rocker as flat-out explosive as "Sacred Attention," you can feel Barlow pushing the band in a more conventional direction, as opposed to about-to-be-hit-in-the-ass-with-the-door-on-his-way-out bandmate Eric Gaffney, who contributes all the album's least commercial moments, from the post-punk grind of "Telecosmic Alchemy" to the quirky, harmonica-driven din of "Fantastic Disaster" and the hardcore barks of "Elixir Is Zog."
Meanwhile, Jason Loewenstein can't pick a side. His mopey ballad "Happily Divided" could have been a Barlow song while "Sister" hits in ways that fit right in with Gaffney's track. This new edition tacks on 15 tracks, including a Barlow-sung sad-bastard take on the Necros song "Reject," a handful of demos for songs that made the album captured in their more abrasive early stages, a few excursions into hardcore, a great lost Loewenstein song called "Old Daze" and an album-ending "Soul And Fire" demo that's guaranteed to tear your heart out. Even more so than the version on the album.
Standout Tracks: "Soul and Fire," "Sacred Attention" A. WATT
