Bubble And Scrape

Off the bat, they sound like a poor man's Soundgarden or Stone Temple Pilots or insert your favorite 90s grunge alt rock band here. 4 songs through and this just sounds terrible. Telecosmic Alchemy has bad singing and disjointed instrumentals. Fantastic Disaster was a too-on-the-nose name for that song. Everything sounds like it was recorded inside a tin can. 8 songs in and finally a normal sounding song in Sacred Attention. Vocals still suck but at least we have coherent music that jams. There were some songs in the 2nd half that were tolerable like Forced Love and Think, but the bar was so low by that point that average songs like those sounded good. This shit sucked. How did this make the cut? 1 star.

Never heard of these guys before. Thought it might be metal from the band name, but the album name and cover tell a different story. Turns out this falls into the catchall genre that is 90s indie rock. And within that catchall space of operations, this album flies all over the place. There are some songs that are of the softer, straight and narrow variety (e.g., Soul And Fire, Cliche, Think), but then there are the punky excursions (Sister, Emma Get Wild, No Way Out), wierdo feakout dilapidated shit (Elixir is Zog, Fantastic Disaster), and others (Flood, Homemade). Honestly its a lot, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the surprise of every track. This was a wild but fun ride. At times the vocals are a bit crass even for my taste, but other than that, this was a blast. Highlights for me were Flood, Soul And Fire, Sister, the kookiness of Fantastic Disaster and Elixir is Zog, and Homemade. Felt like individual tracks remind me of other acts. Sixteen has a Sonic Youth nature about it. Flood taps into a similar unhinged spirit to early Modest Mouse. And No Way Out reminds me of a weird fusion between Police and Iggy Pop. Certainly unique. I'll be back again for me. Solid to high 4.

This album has some pretty decent songs, but there's also a lot of chaff that got included. Pretty comfortable giving this one a 2 because some songs are just awful and the ones that are good aren't great. I don't listen to much Primus, but this had shades of Primus.

All I could hear during that album was "meh meh meh meh we're an edgy indie band"

Ehhhh off time a whole lot and I’m guessing that’s on purpose. There were some random parts of songs I liked and that’s enough to bump it up to a 2

I felt like this was two different album stuck together randomly. Like a combination of Indie rock and punk.

lo-fi, garage rock from members of Dinosaur Jr. If you dig that scene, it's a decent album. I struggle with it.

2/5, half the songs I liked, but the others - yuck

This album embodies the dichotomy of a mad and sad teenager in the 90s before/after a breakup. Surprisingly I liked the softer songs more than the punk songs. They were surprisingly mature in their "being guilty about loving another man is not a good reason to stay in a relationship with me" and "even if we break up I still want the best for you" messaging.

I've never heard of Sebadoh before, but I'm getting Dinosaur Jr. Vibes from this album cover, especially the font of the band name. Alternative and indie rock from this period can be such a mixed bag with me; Sonic Youth? Love 'em. The aforementioned Dinosaur Jr.? I know I should love them, but they're just fine. The Auteurs and Guided by Voices? Throw them on the trash heap. I have no idea which of those categories Sebadoh will fall into, but I'm excited to find out! Bubble and Scrape started off on decent footing with me; "Soul And Fire" had some decent guitar playing to start off, but it piqued my interest when the guitar sound got really fuzzy about a minute into it. It didn't wow me, but I was still left with a fair amount of promise for this album. The second track didn't wow me either, but I started to dislike this album on "Telecosmic Alchemy." I didn't care for the vocals or discordant guitar playing, and the song never really went anywhere that I thought was interesting. I started to hate this album when the harmonica kicked on "Fantastic Disaster." The vocals started to get really grating, and the out of tune sound felt like Sebadoh just wanted to be a weirder Dinosaur Jr. Thankfully, there weren't any other songs that I didn't care for as much as "Telecosmic Alchemy" or "Fantastic Disaster," but Bubble & Scrape just couldn't fully pull me out of the distaste I had developed. Most of this album wasn't bad, but it was just bland and uninteresting to me. Every now and then, a song like "Sacred Attention" would come along and lull me into a false sense of security that this album would turn the corner, but then I'd be let down again on the next song. On "Sacred Attention," the band made great use of the multi-track guitars, and I did like the multiple vocal tracks too. The guitars and vocals came together really well to give this album a deep and rich atmosphere. "Cliche" also featured a lot of what I liked about "Sacred Attention." "Think" was very good too. I enjoyed the acoustic guitar and stripped down vocals. The sound was really haunting, and it was a very well written song. Other than those few songs though, this album was a chore to get through for me. I feel like Sebadoh was on the cusp of something good, but they didn't make the best use of their talents on this album.

This was a decent listen. Very much of its time on the indie scene. Nothing really stands out as especially notable or catchy though. I’m still annoyed that Built To Spill isn’t on this list anywhere, especially with the inclusion of this…

That album wás a disaster...

Wow, what a pleasant discovery! Never heard of them, which I find strange. At times it reminds me of Tera Melos/Bygones that came long after

Tough listen. No redeeming qualities for me

2/5

'There's a joy in letting go, / Free to find a love apart.' For low-fi, slacker rock, Sebadoh is shockingly attuned to the deadweight of violence: 'Shot glass hits the wall / Tiny victory.' There's rage here, tho channeled in a way I haven't really heard before: it's not the Pistols, it's not hardcore, it's not industrial, and it's certainly not metal. Each track is uncomfortable to listen to, and tho I greatly admire the artistry that sustains this record, it honestly unloads a great deal of heaviness I'm not prepared to confront. They're not like the Pixies, who employ violence to explore philosophical themes; this is claustrophobic upset, tho paired w/ an egalitarian ethos: 'I won't hold back, so why should you?' So. I won't hold back. But now I'm afraid.

It's like listening to a garage band that has no potential. You stop by some venue for a free concert, listen for half an hour, and walk away thinking "Oof. Wish the best for them."

2 Stars (5/15)

Cacophony isn't cool, you know?

Нормально, но не вау

Like most albums from this time period: some good songs, some rough around the edges songs. This album had more of the latter.

Personally, it was a lengthy album in terms of volume of songs which can be a double-edged blade as it can leave an album with a few winners quite poor overall due to too much "clutter" or "chaos" which happened here. Overall the album would get a 2 which might be bumped up by a half if less songs existed or more winners were present.

First track really set this up then takes a hard left. Didnt enjoy the music when it took that hard left but it did make me smirk. I tend to enjoy sad boy music and those parts were fine. Album is kinda all over the place and I don't see myself returning to it. 2/5.

like this wasn't good but i made it through. says more than some of the other garbage on this list LOL

Some metal. Songs to go anywhere, no beginning, middle, or end. Audio mix is not good

Approached this with a heavy heart as finding the amount of early 90's American alt rock/grunge on the list slightly tiring. Whilst there are some excellent albums within this genre there is a lot of fairly joyless dross. Unfortunately Sebadoh is leaning towards the later. The album clearly shows the 3 separate song writers and amongst the 17 songs there are a handful that I enjoyed - but unfortunately outnumbered by the ones where I wanted to press skip. Didn't hate it - but will not be listening again so its a low 2.

Bubble and Scrape I bought their album The Sebadoh from a few years after this, while we were at Uni, having seen them do Flame on TOTP. Looking back, that was quite a strange booking for 1999, well after the peak of their influence as a lofi alt rock band. I remember liking that album at the time, and I had a quick listen today and it’s still good, and sounds quite different to this, a lot more confident and crafted perhaps. Roughshod charm with the odd lovely melody poking through I guess is their whole thing, and this delivers that, but similar to Dinosaur Junior and a lot those US bands in the indie-alt-rock-grunge adjacent space it never quite feels like it quite lifts off, like they kind of lose a bit of steam halfway sometimes, or in the case of Eric Gaffneys songs they just aren’t that great to start with. I suppose that drift, again, is part of their schtick and appeal, but it feels a shame that they didn’t develop some of it further, or cut a few tracks (ie Eric’s) off the album as 17 is too many really. Barlow’s songs are probably the strongest, or he has the best ear for a hook or melody, Soul and Fire, Sacred Attention, Homemade, Forced Love and Think are nice slackery lo-fi pop. It’s more enjoyable, due to those songs, than other albums in this genre, and they do have an indefinable quality that makes them likeable. I’d listen again but it’s not necessarily something I’ll come back to that often, I’d definitely listen to The Sebadoh album if I fancied a piece of them. I think it just squeezes a 3. 🫧🫧🫧 Playlist submission: Forced Love

An absolute mess with some great highlights, like vintage Pavement. Eric Gaffney's contributions near sink the album. A year later the band would record 'Bake Sale' without Gaffney, and hit pay dirt.

I enjoyed the first track, but a lot of the rest sounds like Pavement / Sonic Youth / Dinosaur Jr, which is the kind of thing I only really like in short bursts. Lots of fuzzy guitars and lyrics about heartbreak but not very "songy" for the most part.

man, I wanted to like this album but it just didn't do it for me. Took forever to get through it because I was so bored with it. Had plenty of elements I thought were cool, but there are others that I feel do the same thing much better.

Not really for me

Average 90s indie shoegaze feel sorry for myself songs. If I saw them at a festival back then it would’ve inspired me to go get a beer. From Sacred Attention onward they at least show a little bit of energy. Detuning your guitar does not make you automatically interesting. This is like if Pavement stopped giving a shit but got a record deal anyway

Never really got into them, but I like what I heard. Early 90’s angst rock at its height

Some good songs, some weird songs, I like it all

Fine album, not great, not bad. Long AF.

I think I could fall in love with this album. It’s gonna take a few more spins but it’s speaking to me.

There are some decent songs here but most of it is really bad. 2 stars or D.

Sebadon't

Nah this aint it

Kinda boring

The three members of Sebadoh split songwriting and singing duties on this album, leading to wildly uneven results. The Lou Barlow-penned and sung tracks are top-notch. His vocals are heartfelt and the songwriting is thoughtful and nuanced. The production on these songs also really makes them shine. The contributions of the other two band members aren't up to the same level of quality, though. The Eric Gaffney songs are wacky sub-Devo semi-hardcore numbers that sit incongruously next to Barlow's more sophisticated songs. The Jason Lowenstein tracks suffer from Lowenstein's undistinguished vocals.

Kindof a Beatles approach to songwriting but if 2 of the members totally sucked. First two tracks are good though

Such a cool album, I really enjoyed it. Lots of interesting dissonance going on as well.

No clue why this album is on this list. Built To Spill is better. 2.25/5

Another album where I wish we could give half star ratings. If I could, this would be a 2.5. There are a lot of bad, skippable songs on this album. The song "Fantastic Disaster" is in contention for the worst single song I've heard so far. If I had a nickel for every time I've heard a band formed by a bigger band's former bassist over the last 2 weeks, I'd have 2 nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's strange that it happened twice. "Sacred Attention" is my favorite song here and it's not even close. Reminds me of a worse Foo Fighters. I want to give this a 2, but I don't think I disliked it as a whole as much as the other 2 star albums. So for now, Sebadoh (Not really a fan of the band name either, but hey, cool album art), you're getting a begrudging 3 stars from me, and we can all move on with our lives.

I like the juxtaposition between 90s jangly indie rock crooning and bat shit crazy sonic youth experimentation. Will listen to more.

I already forgot this and it was this morning.

Rating: 6/10 Started off awful but got better and better over time. Distorted indie rock with some catchy melodies.

I am displeased to say the least. You mean to tell me this no-man’s-land earbomb of an album deserves its day in the sun? This isn’t charming diy indie, this isn’t a challenge to the listener. Songs 2-4 specifically are just messy. “Happily Divided” is at least something, even though it lives under Nirvanas shadow, both for sounding a lot like it’s making an attempt to sound like Kurt Cobain, and for this being a sub pop release. That gives me a solid reason to be a homer and give this album SOME sort of bias. I found no such reason to do so. This album has an idea of what it wants to be, and has moments of completeness. Lots of intros, like on “Emma Get Wild” give me a vague sense of hope, just for some sloppy vocals and quick-to-stale melodies nosedive it all. I can’t really pick a whole song as a highlight for me. Maybe the halfway point of “Homemade”, having some success actually sounding like proper indie/grunge for a moment. Is this a snapshot of a musical time & place? Sure. Is it worthy of taking a spot on this list over [literally insert your missed album of choice here]? Cmooooon.

Ugh. No thanks.

Aggressively amateurish, at times comically bad, at best hopelessly generic.

Noisy and fun, but definitely forgettable. Enjoyed it for what it was.

Jumps back and forth between jangly alt pop rock and crunchy, sort of grunge sound, while occasionally mixing the two. It's not bad but there's nothing that stands out or it memorable either

Nah. This isn't for me.

Sebadoh has been an enigma for me...absolutely a band I should love (probably more than Dino Jr.) but one that continues to elude me. This album was no different. Very much a GbV formula that falls a little flat. 2.5/5

Pretty solid. Cool indie rock/punk sort of vibes

Some parts were fine and other parts were disorienting

2.95 stars

I like early-mid 90s alt rock. It’s pretty good. But it didn’t blow me away

never heard this. i'm shocked Bakesale isn't on this list, but perhaps there's a good reason this album made it on here instead. hopefully this is just as good Soul And Fire - 5/5 Two Years Two Days - 5/5 Telecosmic Alechemy - 4/5 Fantastic Disaster - 2/5 Happily Divided - 5/5 Sister - 3/5 Cliche - 3/5 Sacred Attention - 4/5 Elixir Is Zog - 4/5 Emma Get Wild - 3/5 Sixteen - 3/5 Homemade - 4/5 Forced Love - 4/5 No Way Out - 2/5 Bouquet For A Siren - 3/5 Think (Let Tomorrow Bee) - 4/5 Flood - 3/5 Average score - 3.6/5 (rounding down) yeah i think i still prefer Bakesale over this, but this was still an alright listen. i was a little intimidated by how many tracks were on here until i noticed these tracks were just short (maybe too short at times)

Inspired but all I heard was wanna be Nirvanas that had too much to drink

Sludgy indie rock. Bit yelpy. Won’t revisit I don’t think.

Some tracks are more to my taste than others. There were some Sonic Youth vibes. Some Dinosaur Jr vibes. Some generic indie vibes. Worth a relisten at least.

It's not quite ear bleedingly bad but there's not really anything good here. Yesterday, I had the Pixies' Surfer Rosa which felt very similar to this but, fortunately, included Where is My Mind? which blows any song from Bubble and Scrape out of the water. The day before that, I had Eels' Beautiful Freak, so it's been a bit of a 90s indie/grunge week so far and Sebadoh is the worst of the bunch by far.

It was pretty boring. Nothing much to write about.

2/5

Very solid.

Great. A Dinosaur Jr. adjacent album taking space away from unrepresented bands. This thing licks hard.

Wow, this was an awesome find! I love discovering these old indie rock albums from the late 80s and early 90s. I will definitely be listening to this one more in the future.

"Soul and Fire" +1

i wanted to like this, but I couldn't get through it. too noisy, too annoying.

A solid record, pretty cool songs, once I adjusted to Lou’s voice I liked it

I kind of got into the vibe of it towards the end, but overall it was a slog despite not even being that long.

A bit poor

Fun little album to listen 3/5

I've listened to this band before a bit. They are decent and there is a bit of variety here.

Achei chato

Pretty good this, enjoyed it more and more as it went on. Lo-fi but rocky too. Quite noisy but in a good way.

Well, that was fun.

Enjoyed it

Some good tracks some boring tracks. Nice project tho liked the tempo and general vibe quite relaxing

Was ok? Kinda not memorable though

Not heard of this before. And now having listened to this glad I gave it a wide berth. Not my thing at all.

A mix of enjoyable lowkey indie tracks and quite annoying discordant tracks, meaning it didn't feel very coherent as an album. Agree with others that a bit out of tune is great, but some of these songs were too out. It's grungy but was surprised when I found it was from 1993, it sounded more early 2000s to me. Maybe ahead of its time!

Definitely not my thing. Yeowch.

Not my thing

Started as a 1, finished a 3

Pretty meh up until the track Fantastic Disaster, which really couldn't be any more descriptive of a name for that song. Happily Divided, with its acoustic guitar was the first song I actually liked on the album. I hope there's more of this type of thing later Nope. Elixir is Zog makes as much sense in its name as it does musically. Maybe like 12 people know what that means, and maybe half of those enjoyed the song. Emma Get Wild was fun. Tied for 1st place on this album for me Everything else was either meh or not good. This was like listening to the average of all the filler songs on all other grunge band albums at its best, and just plain bad at its worst.

Started strong on grunge but then somewhat seems like it got lost in the 90s. Mid tier

Not my cup of tea.

Ah the 90s. What a 90s 90s band from the 90s.

This sounds like a band practice at the parents’ house where the mom already told them to be more quiet 2 times…. I wouldn’t say this is lo-fi it’s just lo-effort

Ok, the first few songs I wasn't really liking this album. Around Sister it really started picking up for me and enjoyed it. 3/5.

Off-brand Nirvana

A bunch of punk songlettes. 2 minute ideas. Some are OK. Some are fine.

Noisy and uniteresting, just not for me

The only album so far on this list that I felt relieved that the YouTube commercials gave me a break from. I'm sure it's all on purpose and brilliant, but the sour notes and occasionally bad vocals... so often I had to skip the end of songs because I couldn't bear it anymore. What was Dimrey thinking, putting this horrible album in the book? The opening is dull, like the worst Contemporary Christian music. The ending of No Way Out is interesting, even if the main song is just awful.

Rock chiant 2

Diving into Bubble and Scrape felt like wading into murky waters. Lo-fi indie, experimental rock, and noise—these are the kinds of pools I’m more than happy to swim in. So when I read some blurbs about this album, I was eager to dive in. Unfortunately, what I found was less like a refreshing swim and more like swimming against a current. Let’s start with the good—there are definitely a few bright spots. "Soul and Fire" opens with a driving, distorted guitar riff that immediately grabs your attention, and the raw, almost desperate vocal delivery from Barlow adds a sense of urgency. "Two Years Two Days" follows with a grungy punch, a little more abrasive but still full of the urgency that defines Sebadoh at their best. Tracks like "Happily Divided," "Cliché," and "Homemade" all have their moments, with swirling guitars and introspective lyrics that show flashes of Sebadoh’s brilliance. "Emma Get Wild" stands out as a surprise, with a simple but effective groove and a more confident vibe that makes it feel like a mini anthem. Unfortunately, not every track holds up. "Telecosmic Alchemy," "Fantastic Disaster," and "Elixir Is Zog" feel directionless and lack the spark of the stronger cuts, often feeling more like filler than fully realized ideas. I might get lambasted for saying this, but the lo-fi production, while intended to create intimacy, often muddies the mix, burying the bass and making certain instrumental passages indistinct. Instead of feeling raw and visceral, it sometimes feels like a veil to potentially hide poor musicianship and half-baked songwriting. At its worst, the lo-fi choices feel like a crutch, masking moments that don’t quite gel together. One thing I did appreciate, however, was the clear sense of cohesion across the album. You can easily tell which tracks come from Lou Barlow and which ones come from Eric Gaffney. Barlow’s tracks, like "Two Years Two Days," tend to be more melodic and introspective, with a sense of melancholy. Gaffney’s contributions, like "Happily Divided," are often more experimental and abrasive, leaning into noise and dissonance. The contrast works, but it’s also apparent that the tension between their different styles was too much to sustain—no wonder Gaffney split after this. In the end, Bubble and Scrape feels like a float through murky waters. There are some moments that make you want to dive deeper, but more often than not, you’re left treading water, wishing for clarity. It’s a record with potential but never quite able to rise above its own hazy surface.

this feels like it was revolutionary are being half-assed or something.

Tilgerðarlegt og mjög misjafnt. Fær aðra til öryggis. 3,5.

3.0 Pretty mediocre alternative/lofi rock. Quite Meat Puppet esque in some ways, but slight less endearing. A few rough gems in there, but often counterbalanced by a crap noise rock songs shortly after.

I was a little underwhelmed by the popular follow up to this, Bakesale, and it was the only Sebadoh I heard at the time. I missed out.

Another 90s lo-fi indie rock album that this list seems to love. There's some elements to note - the first few tracks have a few interesting guitar work. Everything else, though, is just banal vocals and experimentation that goes so far as so it is trying too hard. Best Tracks: N/A Worst Tracks: - Fantastic Disaster - Telecosmic Alchemy Rating: 2/10

..

Super interesting record. I felt like it didn't take itself too seriously, but rather was just solid 90's indie rock with a hint of grunge.

Dreadfully boring music

Indie anos 90. Subpop.2,5.

A nice variety of songs that peak at entirely forgettable or generic and all the way down to awful

2/5

What a headache. Why so much dissonance?? I mean, I get it's part of the style, but when it's constant and you even have instruments out of tune between each other... This sounds like musical and production mistakes rather than stylistic choices. Even on the first song. The start of the album, the drums start playing out of tempo, slower, after the short guitar intro. Like WTF!!. Who was the one in charge that heard that and decided "yeah, that intro sounds good". And it's on the very start of the album. I guess some songs are not so unbearable but the production sucks so bad for a profesional release. And this is certainly not an album I needed to listen before I die. Why the fuck is on the book! 2 stars because the recording itself sounds nice and clean. There was good engineering here. But everything else sounds completely unprofessional.

Me gusto, suena muy 2000s (ahead of it’s time) pero no me encantó

Para nada fan de este tipo de rock, resalto la armónica (?)

Great

My first thought was the name of the group looks like something Adam Sandler would say. My second thought was I've never heard of this group so another chance to discover some new music. Maybe? Almost...this album is OK. It's lo-fi so it's raw, messy and almost in tune. I wanted to like it more, but it just did not click for me.

One for the off kilter music lover. Good.

Ambitious album, with so many influences and styles woven throughout. A talented band who I’ve never heard of. There’s shoegaze, garage rock, punk, and fittingly for the Subpop label in 1993, grunge. It’s good, I like it, but I wasn’t especially compelled by it.

I always thought they were Scottish and that’s why they sound so miserable. Not bad some good but not great songs

Very solid opening track, and then complete rubbish for the next few. I enjoy parts of this, but a lot of tracks are just trying too hard to be noisy

I wanted to quit while listening to the first track, "Soul and Fire", but the album progressively became more interesting to me. Not necessarily in bangers, but really how the tracks melded into each other with this underlying sad tone in both the singing and guitars.

This album's lows are way too low, and that's coming from a huge fan of 90's alt and slacker rock. The highs are still there - the edge of the acoustic guitar on Happily Divided perfectly dabbled into a bit of slowcore style drab. But this ranks very low on my list of good alt slacker rock albums from the 90s, especially since it came out at the same time as Pavement's best albums. 2.5 rounded down

Didn't do much for me. Mostly didn't find it memorable. I could listen again and see if that changes things, but it's pretty meh 90s post-punk, I'd say. First song is good. 2.5 rounding up.

Look, I can't explain what it is about it, but this gets four stars from me. It's good and there are some songs that I will go back and listen to after this round, and that's really my definition of a 4 star album for me.

this was so boring omg

mega ikke for mig. Jeg ventede på at den blev færdig

Den der tidlig-90er indie stil med at pladerne helst lidt skal være noget rod -- det holder ikke særlig godt! Det er en skam for jeg kan ellers godt lide de her bands og de her albums. Det skulle bare have været kortere og mere kohærent

This sounded so bad. I really really hated it.

This is what it sounds like when kids try to write edgy music when they probably should go to therapy.

This kind of felt like a garage band that got its break because of one single (Elixir is Zog) and was booked on a national bar tour and then had to come up with a bunch of songs quickly so they had a bunch of bland one chorus songs. It wasn't bad, but I feel like they wanted to be more and just didn't get there.

This is a band that I want to like more than I actually do. There's a lot about the music that I like. The songwriting is creative and I especially like hearing 3 piece bands. Guitar, bass, and drums. That's it. There's no keyboards or horns to hide behind. Just raw riffs. And I generally like bands that play the notes so hard that they break. So I don't mind that it's a bit chaotic and noisy. It's just a little on the emo side for me but maybe he was just going through some shit. Overall the songs just don't really add up to something that I want to listen to over and over again. Soul & Fire, Two Years Two Days, Sacred Attention are pretty good.

I enjoy the early 90’s lo-fi sound going on here because I adore the time period, but these songs just seem too lazy and sloppy to be taken seriously. Based on sound alone, this album is the equivalent of some skinny, strung-out white dude waking up to discover he’s pissed himself and doesn’t seem to mind so he just lights up a cigarette and turns on the tv, in a position he’ll stay in until he falls asleep again in 15 or so hours.

This is pretty low-fi garage heartbreak rock. Their Wiki page compares them to bands like Guided by Voices, which I didn't pick up on until I read that. But now I can definitely hear it! Anyway, this wasn't terrible. I jived with it here and there and I thought the lyrics were pretty well done, but it's probably not a new favorite band. I was definitely ready to be done by the end of the second listen. Favorite song was Flood, the closer. I liked how screamy it was.

Jeg glemte at rate på dagen, og kan ikke huske noget særligt fra oplevelsen.

En pudsig blandning af alt rock, indie rock og punk. Der er egentlig mange fine sange på albummet. Men lytning af dem i en køre bliver virkelig mærkeligt. Det er som om albummet er fragmenteret

The first track was promising, but then…

This album definitely sounds like a Dinosaur Jr side project. The more post-punk songs like “Emma Get Wild” and “No Way Out” are cool. Some of the more grungy songs are a bit boring. I don’t love all the yelling Dinosaur Jr does, but I didn’t mind “Flood.” “Homemade” is probably my least favorite song. Unfortunately it’s also the longest song. It wasn't a bad listen, but I don’t know if I’d play it much again in the future. Half of it feels pretty generic, but there are some interesting songs. Not sure it really belongs on an all-time list. 3.5/5

I want to really like this album, as I have liked other things by Sebadoh, and I like this style of noise indie rock/pop. However, I feel this album is too uneven. The songs rarely flow into each other, and while I do like variety in albums a lot, in this case, it felt disjointed. The songs were also good but really didn't amaze me. I could see this growing on me, but I just feel there are better examples of this style of music and delivery (for example, The Wicked Farleys.)

Du sous-Nirvana avec une touche de punk et de pop. Rien d'inoubliable.

Boring noise

a mixed-bag, some good tunes, some terrible vocals

Most of the tracks on this album are just meh, but Homemade is probably my favorite

Average

1,5

1993. US indie rock

I really liked this one. It sounds like a combination of Dinosaur Jr, Mudhoney and Husker Du with some Captain Beefheart thrown in for good measure.

Meh album, nothing remarkable.

Did not care for this.

I liked the first song until the lyrics. Very depressing. Not what I’d listen to.

Horrible

Longest 44 minutes of my life

Many of the tracks sounded out of tune. Musically not all that great.

Started.off Ok but got tiresome.

Not too memorable

Some decent tracks,but nothing really jumped out as overly impressive.

Shaggy lo-fi post-hardcore indie rock played at an ambling pace with lots of space for the fuzzy guitars to blossom, for the overdrive to warm up, and the riffs to grow and weave around. A nice amalgam of the sounds of the pre-grunge DIY underground - a bit of the slacker energy of Pavement, the nervouse energy of Missions of Burma, some of the dynamimcs of the Pixies, and the heavy crunchy distortion of the Melvins, the driving energy of the Minutemen, the thick chugging riffs of Dino Jr, and the sprawling dissonance of Sonic youth. The vocals are thin and introspective, mumbled and screamed and somewhat buried in the mix - none of the songs have have the hooks or big catchy melodies of Pixies/Dino.

I assume this was the end result of some punch card where if you get last place in enough battle of the bands you get an hour of studio time. Some bands will use dissonant chords and sounds as an effect in a song. These guys do it every second, and the effect is they suck.

Jesus, these guys have 9 albums! I couldn’t get all the way through 3 songs before tapping out - aural arm bar for the submission. The pain…

When this started, I thought - oh, another grunge-inspired Sub Pop band. They sounded as I imagined or remembered them (I must have heard them at the time without anything sinking in enough to play them under my own steam). But as this developed, it veered into weirder, more Sonic Youth tinged territory and became a lot more fun. The acoustic stuff is not so interesting, but the more electric songs and weird, off-kilter touches lift it from the 'ordinary indie' pile I initially mentally filed it in.

I was a little disappointed by this. I was expecting so much more. It sounds wholesome - you can almost hear the sound of the songs being crafted. It's a little rough around the edges. UK Vs US indie is quite a leap of understanding and aesthetic

A really cool alternative rock album :) very interesting prog undertones

First song rips but the rest of the album is really average to miss.

Make it stop

In my younger years, I probably would’ve enjoyed this more but it’s not really my speed these days Like the tracks Sister and Cliche

There are 4 or 5 songs on this that I think are great and then there’s a lot of cacophany. In general I like what this is throwing down though

Music is meh, but it looks like someone had fun with arts and crafts at least.

Overly scrappy but some likeable moments

I have never heard a song worse than Elixer is Zog and I never will. Every second of this was pure torture.

To whomever wrote in their review: "...Intentionally dissonant poverty tier indie rock..." - I love you. Vindicating all my memories of the worst tendencies of the cynicism of my generation and the lack-of-effort 90s SUPER COOL INDIE SCENE! This is dogshit, and intentional dogshit. They're insulting you. Fking slacker rock. I hate this band. 0/10 0 stars.

lou really needs j mascis unfortunately

I liked a couple of tracks but that’s it

This album grew on me throughout the day.

"Bubble And Scrape," the seminal album by Sebadoh, masterfully resurrects the essence of indie rock, weaving together lo-fi aesthetics and introspective songwriting that feels remarkably relevant for the early '90s when it was released. The band’s raw sound and poignant lyrics tap into the emotional undercurrents of a generation seeking authenticity in a rapidly commercializing music landscape. By blending unconventional song structures with relatable themes of love, loss, and disillusionment, Sebadoh not only honors the genre's foundations but also reinvigorates them, making this album a quintessential representation of indie rock's evolution during that era.

I can appreciate a few of the songs. But there are also a handful that are just “too much”. But a song like Telescopic Alchemy is pretty good

This was just a bad album I did not like it

Some decent strum-and-sing tracks, and a bunch of more adventurous indie stuff.

3.5

Nice punky vibe, some of the songs I actually noticed as I was listening, but mostly another bakcground album.

Not what i thought, kind of power pop sometimes, too post modern at other times

Confused band. I like some of their grunge, almost none of the punk.

1/5

First listen to a nice album 👍

I really enjoyed this album. It’s a fun indie rock record that at times verges into grungey post-rock. Fun guitar work with some cool blues influences. Lots of fuzz and noise throughout. Vocally it’s abrasive yet melodic, and the delivery feels incredibly genuine. “Telecosmic Alchemy” stands out as my favourite track on the record. I hear some resemblance to bands like modest mouse throughout, but it doesn’t feel like a copy of anything. This is a record that I’ll almost definitely listen to again. 4*

This was an… interesting album. I really liked the first two tracks, then they really lost me after that for a little while, but the last several songs redeemed it a bit. There’s some pretty interesting and unusual songwriting. 6/10

Better than expected—- 3.5 going 4 due to lack of love here.

Slowcore may not be Sharkcore.... But it is at least Sharkadjacent. (8.35) ★★★★

Like the guitar work, but hate the vocals. A couple of good songs. 2.5 stars

Heard a few Sebadoh albums, but this wasn't one of them. There were some songs I really liked -- "Soul and Fire" and "Homemade" were great, but there's a fair amount of stuff that just sounds like Lou goofing around too. So, it's pretty inconsistent. Some nice highs and some low lows. 3.5

3.5

Very crumbly and lame slowcore/grunge/slacker/crud rock whatever. They stumble upon a cool supercharged guitar riff every once in a while but most of the time this is aimless dossy noise. Generally it sounds like a dull handicapped Nirvana, at its shrieking worst like an even crapper Meat Puppets and at its best like a slightly cooler than normal early Snow Patrol. So a mixed bag that’s still mainly crap.

Not my taste, seems chill tho

Skulle typ kalla detta ett dinosaur jr b-sido album. Inte dåligt dock

I definitely don’t like this: it’s pretty unpleasant throughout, but it is interesting and unpredictable.

This mostly swings between mopey and uninteresting and chaotic and grating. Often feels like a second-rate Nirvana I appreciate that they seemed to try doing a few different things, but largely it feels poorly put together. The songwriting is mostly uninteresting to bad. Fantastic Disaster is an absolute mess, which I suppose may be the point given the name, but wow I don't want to listen to it again. I also got so tired of the vocals by the end, just your pretty standard bland 90s alt rock voice The guitar and bass tones can be good, the drumming shows some strong flashes too. No idea why this is on the list though Highlights: Telecosmic Alchemy

I believe that if an album is going to be listed as one of the 1,001 it should meet some minimum standards. It should be a quality recording. It should have excellent production. The musicians should be competent and the song writing should have some aesthetic qualities. Does an album have to have all of these attributes? Not necessarily. Sometimes a recording is done in such a way to try to capture, say, the band live foregoing what we would typically think of uus "quality". Likewise, an album doesn't have to have the production value and perfectionism of, fore example, Steely Dan or Boston. Musicianship can be a tricky one. Was Kurt Cobain a great guitarist in the same echelon as Les Paul, B.B King or Eric Clapton? No, but he knew his limitations and worked within them to produce something unique. He had competency and then some. Lastly while aesthetics are often in the eye of the beholder, there is usually something about a song that draws the listener in and makes a connection with them. It might be a lyric or a theme or an energy. But there has to be something. Almost all the albums that I’ve heard so far meet the standards I listed above. Perhaps the album has all of these qualities. Perhaps it only has some of them. This album, however, has none of those qualities in my opinion. The songs are monotonous and discordant. The vocals are weak. Musically, the album is just cacophonous. It reminds me of a bunch of guys that got together in high school and learned to play their instruments in their garage or basement. They’re not good enough to do cover songs so they wrote their own material and bang their way through it with what barely passes as musicianship. Then they bought an inexpensive recording device off Alibaba and created a overly saturated demo that they sent to the local radio and cable stations in an effort to try to get a record deal. While they did get that deal, it doesn’t mean they are very good or that the material is very good. It’s simply gives the rest of us talentless hacks hope as we dream to someday play in a band.

4/10 Ideas are betrayed by the execution and poor singing. Some stuff is cool, but mostly it’s atonal or inharmonious just to grate on the ears. They might be cool live, but this record does a terrible job capturing it.

A bit like many of its contemporaries - Dinosaur Jr, Neil Young, Nirvana, Sonic Youth - but doesn't quite hit the same heights. Very lo-fi, with some weird tuning that gets a bit much after a while. Has it's ups and downs, but overall it's a mid. Standouts: Emma Get Wild, Homemade

Half awful, on many songs they’re not even trying to sing properly. Sophomoric lyrics 2.4

lofie indie rock, I've never heard before but at first i feel this album is great yet after a while it's like a generic, still worth to listen

nice enough

Meh

I tried. Someone said if Beck fell down the stairs. Early grunge, proto punk?

Not really for me. It’s sort of un-put-together sounding to me, in some songs the words don’t sound quite right. However some of the songs were really good !! I probably won’t listen to most of it again, however.

"how hard could harmonizing be?": The Album. Bad, just bad and annoying all around. If a hallmark of the genre is sounding bad on purpose then maybe its just not good?

Never thought I’d feel second hand embarrassment listening to an album but here we are!

mixed bag but overall a net good for me

Weird album, but I didn't hate it

interesting mix of indie, grunge, and punk. not sure it works well but it wasnt bad

Whatever this is it ain't for me. REM but bad.

Some cool sounds but vocals were very dated sounding

1 star. Didn’t even make it through the album.

I feel like when I started the 1001 albums generator, I would have hated this. Or maybe felt nothing towards it. But now? I was really into this. From the quieter moments to the louder moments, from the clear to the fuzzy. This album was really genuinely an enjoyable listen for me.

This is not my style but the ways it's driving me nuts are more style related vs them being inept.

Not my favorite Sebadoh album, but I was a fan of Bakesale and Harmacy. I wanted more Sebadoh so I purchased this, so the money was spent and needed to put in the time. I would have listened a lot on my walk home from highschool using my Panasonic Shockwave Portable CD Player. I was into indie rock with a dash of emo. I was a teenager. I was wearing vintage zip up cardigans. Lou Barlow can be a good lyricist. Being much older now, there are a lot of cringey moments. I think tracks 1,2,5 are fine and among the limited tracks that I can remember. Which makes me believe I would often skip quite a few tracks. Emma Get Wild has some cool bits. The melodies in Homeade are good, but I remember skipping the track most listens and I still feel no one needs this. Think was the track I would have put on some mixtapes. Overall I think this album is un focused and and shoots it's self in the foot too many times.

This album was a bunch of fun. It was mostly right up my alley for grungy 90s rock

1.5

Weird 90s punk in a great way. A bit disjointed at times but some real standouts strong enough to carry through the rest, especially Cliche.

The opening song Soul &Fire, grabbed attention, and I actually really enjoyed it on this early morning, though the tempo change in the first 12 secs was weird. As the album continued forward, I started losing interest. By the third song Telecosmic Alchemy, the bad harmonica threw me for a loop. It bounced back a little bit with Happily Divided. Sacred Attention was a strong contribution that I’m surprised didn’t make it bigger in the 1990’s, but then Emma Get Wild felt misplaced. This album collectively felt like a grabbag of genres, some well executed and some not ready to leave the garage just yet.

Probably the less said the better. I really gritted to get through this one. The low-fi 90s bands are all overrated in my opinion. Don't you want to have fun when listening to music? I'm either not fooled or I just don't get it. Really could go either way. Anyway, I never really want to hear this again.

I prefer Bakesale but this is good too!

Groupe totalement inconnu. Cet album est très étrange et difficile d'accès, avec des morceaux très "expérimentaux" (dissonance), et d'autres plus classiques. En tous cas le résultat est original, et j'ai été souvent agréablement surpris. Je ne l'intègrerais probablement pas à ma collection, mais je le ré-écouterais probablement. =>3/5

"Soul And Fire" more generic, slow-paced grunge a la budget Nirvana. The faster-paced alt-rock "Sacred Attention" and "Sister" sound is better.

Like the music. A very 90’s grunge sound. Overall a good album. 3/5 Might listen again

Couple interesting songs otherwise pretty horrible. 1.76

Caught Sebadoh live a few years ago and they were ace. This album is great, slack with occasional ventures into artful noise-rock.

Weirder and more discordant than the skinny boy whining I was expecting

Ganska gôtt skrammel. Fyra

• 2/5 • A couple of good tracks, but album is inconsistent • Vocals are a weak point

3.5 Chaotic surfer punk that is best when they slow it down.

There are too many songs on this and they are all over the place

Rockmuziek die me een beetje aan Weezer doet denken. Klinkt prima. ***

Bubble & Scrape is the fourth album by Sebadoh, originally released in 1993. I've always hears of Sebadoh but I never listened to this album. This is very on-brand for Sub Pop at the time. Solid alternative rock very reminiscent of Dinosaur Jr. It definitely doesn't have the super distorted production quality that Dinosaur Jr is known for, so more listeners may gravitate towards this record. It has that indie-slacker-rock vibe, not unlike Pavement was doing in the 90s. The songwriting is meh at times but overall this was a cool listen.

Never been quite as conflicted, there is mostly utter dross on here. Music that sounds like it was made by 15 year olds starting out. But there were one or two gems in the ocean of crap.

Sólo un tema rescatable para mi gusto, el resto para olvidar

Yeah this is bad. Nirvana if they sucked, Mount Erie if he sucked, sounds like they blended all of their instruments together along with some guy's whiny voice and poured it into an album. Yuck Fav Songs: None

Not sure if I liked this one, but will listen to again soon cause I just might

all over the place sonically and consistency-wise. some good songs on here, but none of them are long enough to leave any lasting impression on me.

Dinosaur Jr. x Violent Femmes x The Pixies x Nirvana x Red Vox = Sebadoh. I was ready to give up after the fourth song.. man that song was bad. Theres a lot of stuff I like that is combined with stuff I am not a fan of. Someone needs to check on this singer cus man he fits the clinically depressed description perfectly. Looked at the wiki after, pretty funny that I referenced Dinosaur Jr. as one of the vocalists is the founder. Also similar to Dinosaur Jr. I am very mixed on this one. 6/10

Too noisy. Not my thing.

4.5/10

Not my taste at all

There are some beautiful moments on here, and some very creative confusion...and a whole lot of question marks. I get that it's supposed to sound rough and unfinished, a bit like a fever dream, and it's surprising how cool that comes off some of the time. Unsurprising, though, how pretentious it sounds a lot of the time, too. The lyrics, which amount to a lot of anger that girls don't live up to some boring adolescent dream of what they should be, get repetitive.

Just couldn’t connect with this album. Maybe I wasn’t in the right mood, but then again, isn’t this kind of shoegazing, grungy indie rock exactly what one listens to in such moments? (Apparently, it even made NME’s Top 30 Heartbreak Albums list.)

Best Song: Think (Let Tomorrow Bee). By forcing themselves to do something understated, they've actually made something listenable. Worst Song: Fantastic Disaster. Just because you give your train wreck of a song a tongue-in-cheek name doesn't absolve you of having made the disaster in the first place. Overall: Greasy jam music that never should have left the garage it was written in. Not all music need be distributed for mass consumption.

Pretty chad.

Enjoyable 3.5

Not good. There is potential, but mostly overindulgent and pithy.

Yeah, I never got into this band. Their music has a lot of the elements that I don’t enjoy. Feels like wannabe grunge, with jangly indie guitars and off key garage vocals. It’s like shitty Lemonheads. Seven songs in and I just can’t find anything compelling. Add this to the pile of “totally not necessary to hear before you die”.

New band and album to me. Some of the slower songs were good. I would’ve liked this more if I’d heard it then.

Listened to this record several times. I typically love early 90s grunge and indie rock, and some tracks were great, but overall it seemed too random, too punky with poor singing and random harmonicas. No top 1000 record for me.

I always prefer Lou when he's in Dinosaur Jr. Not as low-fi as some of their albums, there is some production here and Lou stretches himself here by actually writing a range of songs and he remembers melodies. Early 90's post Nirvana rock; not at its best, but definitely not at its worst either. It's somewhere in the middle. Best Tracks: Soul and Fire; Cliche; Flood

I owe an unreasonable amount of my musical taste to the greater Amherst area, but even I was surprised that this album is on this list. Not that it doesn't deserve to be - there's maybe as many as 3 Sebadoh albums that I'd give a 4 or better to - but they just seem like a fascinating little cul de sac artist.

You think it will be an okay listen, but then it isn't.

lofi indie rock that hinges on grunge and garage rock with some punk influences as well on this album. it's also the original band for the Dino Jr. frontman, which is pretty funky.

3/10 Pretty awful Favourite Song=Soul and Fire Least Favourite Song=Fantastic Disaster

not good

Dig

Utter, utter shite! Everything about this is utter shite! If I could give it zero stars I would.

Could not get into this

“Bubble & Scrape” is one of a few records here that I avoided on release, probably because I’d heard they were soft and back then all I wanted was hard. Yet it feels familiar and brings nostalgia; the sound’s an archetype, one I could place and probably attribute blind despite having never consciously listening to Sebadoh apart from the likely Peel spins. I bet a far smaller percentage of Sebadoh’s bedwetter brigade vote Trump than do Green River fans, and I wish this more empathetic wing of Gen X had survived contact with the Millenium Bug and made it to the post-End of History. It’s overlong, pretty passages matched by workmanlike grunge porridge, marker of a democratic attitude to letting every band member have their fair slice of the vinyl pizza. This is a peak 3/5 record and I’m glad it’s here. Bob Weston of Shellac engineered this, a credit that fits: a sweet man recording a sweet record.

Don't think I've ever heard an entire Sebadoh album before. Flashes of brilliance here, although inconsistent; unfortunately I'm about 25 years past caring, sorry

Yesterday I got an album by Dinosaur Jr. Coincidentally, today's album comes from former Dinosaur Jr bassist, Lou Barlow's band. Sebadoh was Barlow's outlet when he found his creative voice being pushed out by bandmate J Mascis. To my surprise, I enjoyed this one more. It sounds more developed, more accessible, albeit a bit less groundbreaking. Sebadoh sounds more like the 90s indie rock I would have known from my childhood. Deeply influenced by punk and post punk, with nods to experimental music but poppy enough to dominate college radio stations of the era. I really feel like I can hear loads of hints of early Beck releases on here. What a great discovery. I wish I'd known this album earlier.

A little meandering at times but enjoyable

Yesss. Love this band.

Really enjoyed the first half

I HATE DISSONANCE Standout track: - Think (let tomorrow bee) 4/5

Cliche was the first track I really liked. Sacred Attention and Homemade had great sound as well. The album starts off weak and doesn’t really hit stride until about 1/3 way in at the above tracks. Overall I enjoyed it, but not sure if I would listen again. 3

越听越难听

I don't know the low-fi isn't really my thing but it also didn't totally hurt my ears

A variety of different styles in all parts of the music on a song by song basis. I think the tracks were a bit too short to stick, but it was pretty good.

How is this an album you need to listen to before you die. Proper shit.

Mooi lekker punk

A bit Hüsker Dü.

This is dead good. Grunge with a hint of shoegaze that is right in my wheelhouse. It probably suffers a little in comparison to some of the music that came out of the same scene at the same time, because arguably judged solely on its own merits it could be inching into the fives.

Mediocre appeal.

Interesting but not very original

Fav: Soul On Fire Least Fav: Telecosmic Alechemy This was incredible, lo-fi rock is something new to me and it will be something I’ll be getting into. Im shocked at such a low average rating, this album was great

The first couple songs sounded almost run of the mill grunge, but by the end I was kind of into it. The punk ethos that was inherent to grunge is very present. I suppose it depends on your opinion of both those genres as to whether or not that’s a good thing. It gave off definite Stereopathetic Soul Manure vibes, and I’m sure it’s something Beck had been listening to.

telecosmic academy might be the worst song I've ever heard never mind the rest of the album from here is also terrible. at least all the songs are quite short so you get a different kind of terrible every couple of minutes. No way out is SHITE A solid 1.5. Whether it gets rated 1 or 2 is solely based on how much I liked the last song. It's a 1!

Nondescript ‘90s alt-rock back when that meant college radio rock trying to do stoner grunge. When it’s good, it’s just meat and potatoes alt-rock, and it’s fine; when it’s bad, it’s clearly a bunch of stoned motherfuckers trying to be ✨experimental✨ by just playing sloppily and out of sync, and it’s annoying. A whatever of a record. I'm fine with it, but I'm also not inspired by even its best songs. Eh 🤷🏻‍♀️

Starts off alright but soon descends into a mix of slow grunge and grating noise. A bit below average overall.

Big meh on this one.

Just okay. Somewhat dynamic! If I had the cassette I probably would have listened to it a lot but there are more options now

I enjoyed this one they really went back and forth between a 90/00s indie sound and then more grunge/garage. Pretty stripped down and interesting.

These guys suuuuuuuuck

Just sounds like harsh noise to me

I prefer my Sebadoh when they show a little vulnerability and they don't act like it's all just a joke, like on the first and best track of the album, Soul and Fire. Unfortunately, they don't make a lot of these on that album, but I guess that's what Bakesale is for. I mean, I love slacker rock but you don't have to act like you're not trying at all.

Probably the only tolerable Slacker Rock band out there.

Hey, this is far from a masterpiece, but they got a couple of pretty great slacker rock songs out there! Maybe it's all a little spoiled by some "joke" or "I don't care" songs. Anyway, I enjoyed it as a pure 3 stars.

Perfectly serviceable album and if you're into this then great, I'm pleased for you, but it's just not my kind of thing in all honesty. Some tracks have a great energy about them. I think 'Emma Get Wild' is the best offering. It has a cool groove to it. It's a bit different from the rest. I find the vocals to be very all over the place, I don't think he's very good and I'm not a fan. It does all blend together in my opinion, rather indistinguishable. Decent enough to just stick on in the background though if you fancy listening to the genre.

Honestly I love the rawness of it. There production is lacking, but adds to the mystique. The punk overtones, and sadboy rock consistency create a very intriguing, indie record. It can get lost in the noise at points, but the song writing is strong and captivating, has that dinosaur jr vibe. Really surprised by this one

los primeros dos temas estaban bien. A partir de ahí todo fue un gran "queseyo".

Some bits are 4+. Some don't even deserve a 1. 3 is generous.

De esos álbumes de los que no se sabe nada y resultan ser casi una genialidad. Empieza increíble, luego se pone raro, luego otra vez es genial y al final se queda la sensación de haber escuchado algo único que seguro crecerá con cada escucha. Padrísimo.

Feels like how I picture nirvana in my head, but with a sprinkling of really hard to listen to songs. The amount of dissonance in some of the songs is too much for me. Interesting enough. 2.5 rounded up (if I listened to it again I'm sure I'd give it a 2, but I think that would just be me getting even more annoyed with songs like Fantastic Disaster)

This early 90s indie college rock never did much for me (other than Superchunk) tho there’s some nice songs here

Didn't enjoy it much.

This album had everything you would expect from early 90s Indie rock: Some songs that are surprisingly listenable with new and energetic material, and some songs overflowing with weirdness and unnecessary shrieking . That balances out to a perfectly inoffensive average score. I do hope they gave Kurt Vonnegut credit for the central part of their cover art (IYKYK)

What a range of rock. Some of this is quite good, but some is quite bad/weird.

This is mostly pretty irritating to me. I'll be sure to never listen to this again.

Not bad! 3.5/5