Review of Baby I'm Bored by Peter White
From Drowned in Sound
Evan Dando holds the key to understanding
the latter part of the ‘90s. He’s the sunshine pop master who
created dreams and broke eternal promises throughout the post-grunge, shotgun
through the head, caffeine gone funny, folk imploding days. He’s got
a lot to answer for and a lot to remember.
‘Baby I’m Bored’ is the only record a sober, former
Lemonhead could have made. He has played his part in terrorising a nation
of ramshackle punks, driven Blake Baby adoring nerds mad with his Juliana
Hatfield torment and arrived late for every single birthday party we’ve
thrown for him. He would be such a legend if he’d just blown his brains
out a few weeks earlier.
THIS RECORD DOES NOT SOUND LIKE GRAM PARSONS.
The collection of songs that has been morphing into a cohesive structure midway
through my Steely Dan inspired thoughts is that of sheer joy. Joy to have
found the missing link between ‘Lick’, ‘It’s a
Shame about Ray’ and ‘Car, Button, Cloth’.
While never predictable, the songs you hear are the songs you've fantasised
about Evan fawning over, arched-back in the magnificence of the ultimate dayream
pop record. 'Baby I'm Bored' is as beautiful as the sweet smell of
a napalm Sunday in a hooker's cigarette-stained mind. It has flown to the
front of a list of chancers and thrown its hat down for some serious challenging.
Sweet rock acoustica confronted by a string of memories that would do well
to be forgotten are hitched onto a simple palette of rock federation expletives.
Noise Addict endorsed beauty dictates that this record could be the start
of something new or the closure of something that will never go away. Either
way, Evan Dando is ripping through my zeitgeist and supplementing my vitamin
deficiency. ‘Baby I’m Bored’; Bring it.