Review of Baby I'm Bored by Simmy Richman
From The Independent On Sunday 16th March 2003
In the early 1990s, try as he might, Evan Dando just couldn't be Kurt Cobain - he looked too pretty and his songs were too poppy. In his struggle to be Cobain, Dando took drugs. Lots of drugs. Then, instead of dying, Dando simply burnt out and faded away. Baby I'm Bored is his first official release in seven years and the toll of the past is tangible. Gone is the spark from The Lemonheads' best moments but, instead of immersing himself in the gloom, Dando tries to make like the past decade never happened. The album's best moments are the two-handers recorded with J Brion ('It Looks Like You' and the almost-wonderful 'Why Do You Do This To Yourself', which hint at the heartbreaking country album this might have been). It's not that this is a bad record, it's just that - as its title suggests - the former golden boy of grunge sounds bored.