Bakesale

Sebadoh was designed as a modern version of the WHITE ALBUM-era Beatles: three singer-songwriters operating under one umbrella, using each other as their respective backing bands. Starting with homemade cassettes and moving on to CDs without bothering to up the recording technology, they became lo-fi heroes, largely on the strength of Lou Barlow's bitter odes to romance. more...

With BAKESALE, their fourth full-length album, Sebadoh start playing by more traditional rules, and subsequently reach a much bigger audience. Eric Gaffney, the founding member responsible for the noisiest and most outre songs, has departed (although he still shows up as the drummer on four tracks), leaving the band with a more consistent sound. And this time, it's a punchy guitar sound that seems to emanate from a lot more than the usual four tracks.
What hasn't changed is the writing, and this time around Barlow--who contributes the Nirvana-ish "License To Confuse", the tuneful "Magnet's Coil" and "Skull", among several others--is nearly rivaled for excellence by Jason Loewenstein, whose own fine pack of songs is led by the raw love ballad "Got It". Even new drummer Bob Fay gets a nice one in.

Spin (12/94, p.78)
- Ranked #16 in Spin's list of the `20 Best Albums Of '94' - "...Sebadoh's cleanest, most pro recording to date..."

Mojo (1/95, p.53)
- Included in Mojo's "25 Best Albums of 1994" - "...their most consistent long-player yet with brisk, riffing nuggets....Sebadoh are surely poised for greatness."

Village Voice (2/28/95)
- Ranked #20 in the Village Voice's 1994 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll.

NME (12/24/94, p.23)
- Ranked #27 in NME's list of the `Top 50 Albums Of 1994.'

Rolling Stone (12/1/94, p.126)
- 3 Stars - Good - "...Sebadoh are Lou Barlow's Velvet Underground, wrapping his confessions in fuzz, hiss and distortion and setting them alongside complementary songs by bandmates....Individual songs offer slightly different perspectives..."

Spin (9/94, p.136)
- Highly Recommended - "...a consistent, even professional pop-rock record....Like the young Elvis Costello, he flirts with emotional fascism twisting love-song cliches into clever negations..."

Musician (8/94, p.85)
- "...the overall effect is lightly, pleasantly numbing. Which is part of their appeal, one suspects..."

Q (11/94, p.124)
- 4 Stars - Excellent - "...The tone is conversational, the choice of words precise, yet natural. Sebadoh may have arrived at a potentially very popular midpoint between R.E.M. and Nirvana..."

NME (8/27/94, p.39)
- "...Set alongside Barlow's fearless lyrics, quality control is no longer an issue for this band..."

Alternative Press (10/94, p.95)
- "...Sebadoh continue their streak of winners on BAKESALE, an album brimming with edgy, off-kilter pop....It's that self-aware wink that keeps so much self-doubt from becoming grating....There's really not a bad song on here..."