The Lemonheads: It's a Shame About Ray (30th anniversary edition, green vinyl) [FIRE]

Why you'll love it

This remastered 30th anniversary pressing on green vinyl comes with a download code for 15 bonus tracks. The title song reached No. 5 on the US Modern Rock chart and No. 31 in the UK, and Pitchfork later put it at No. 138 on its Top 200 Tracks of the 90s.

This edition

• 30th anniversary edition
• Green vinyl
• Remastered
• Download card for 15 bonus tracks

About the album

Plenty of great American records owe something to Australia, though few can point to one newspaper clipping. Evan Dando spotted a story in a Sydney paper in late 1991 about a teenager named Ray, and a song, then an album, grew from there. Actress Polly Noonan and her car made the cover.

Dando cut it with Juliana Hatfield on bass and backing vocals and David Ryan on drums, and the Robb Brothers produced. "Rockin' Stroll" kicks things off at a gallop, "Bit Part" and "Alison's Starting To Happen" are bursts of sunny power pop, "Hannah & Gabi" slows to a lovely country sway, and "Frank Mills" closes with a gentle cover from the musical Hair. Johnny Depp turns up in the video for the title track, which tells you how cool the band were that year.

The Lemonheads toured Australia in 2010 playing the whole album front to back, which seemed the polite thing to do, given where it all started.

Also at Kops: more The Lemonheads on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Fire (cat# FIRELP624), a reissue of the 1992 album.