Reviews (page 6 of 7)
2/5
Album was cheeks. I felt more and more vaguely pissed off the more I listened
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?
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.
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
There are some decent songs here but most of it is really bad. 2 stars or D.
Nah this aint it
Kindof a Beatles approach to songwriting but if 2 of the members totally sucked. First two tracks are good though
No clue why this album is on this list. Built To Spill is better. 2.25/5
I already forgot this and it was this morning.
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.
Some parts were fine and other parts were disorienting
2.95 stars
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.
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.
2/5
Great. A Dinosaur Jr. adjacent album taking space away from unrepresented bands. This thing licks hard.
i wanted to like this, but I couldn't get through it. too noisy, too annoying.
I kind of got into the vibe of it towards the end, but overall it was a slog despite not even being that long.
Achei chato
Not heard of this before. And now having listened to this glad I gave it a wide berth. Not my thing at all.
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.
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
A bunch of punk songlettes. 2 minute ideas. Some are OK. Some are fine.
Noisy and uniteresting, just not for me
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.
..
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.
Para nada fan de este tipo de rock, resalto la armónica (?)
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.
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
this was so boring omg
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
The first track was promising, but then…
Most of the tracks on this album are just meh, but Homemade is probably my favorite
1,5
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.
Many of the tracks sounded out of tune. Musically not all that great.
Started.off Ok but got tiresome.
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.
Music is meh, but it looks like someone had fun with arts and crafts at least.
lou really needs j mascis unfortunately
I liked a couple of tracks but that’s it
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
Confused band. I like some of their grunge, almost none of the punk.
Like the guitar work, but hate the vocals. A couple of good songs. 2.5 stars
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.
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
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
Meh
Never thought I’d feel second hand embarrassment listening to an album but here we are!
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.
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.
Couple interesting songs otherwise pretty horrible. 1.76
There are too many songs on this and they are all over the place
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
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.
Too noisy. Not my thing.
4.5/10
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.
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.
You think it will be an okay listen, but then it isn't.
3/10 Pretty awful Favourite Song=Soul and Fire Least Favourite Song=Fantastic Disaster
I HATE DISSONANCE Standout track: - Think (let tomorrow bee) 4/5
越听越难听
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.
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.
los primeros dos temas estaban bien. A partir de ahí todo fue un gran "queseyo".
This is mostly pretty irritating to me. I'll be sure to never listen to this again.
There were some fine songs, but very unfocused and I wouldn’t glance twice at the stage of these guys were playing at a local bar. I’m not sure what about it earns its place on the list.
the first 2 tracks were a bit of me and then it just turned into awful whiny crap
Crap
I am sorry to all my dear friends in their Sebadoh tees; I have tried, but I don't get it. The lyrics on Spotify have comments from the person transcribing despairing at trying to understand what's going on. It's just some arty discordant noise: fun basement homemade stuff, which is probably more enjoyable to make than to listen to. If Sebadoh were a mate's band, or if it were cheap and local, I'd go to the gigs, but honestly, I'm sighing and eye-rolling my way through this one.
Fairly standard alternative 4/10
I really didn't like this album. I don't know what's so good about it. I had to look up why it was a good album and even then couldnt get many answers. I will say that the songs were different from one to the next which can be hard to find on this list. But I didn't enjoy my experience.
Decent sound but not my style
Some type of American indie.Not for me at all
who made elliot smith do awful emo rock bruh 😭 no but fr this album is a let down, i could do see this being something i liked if the singer was different and if the production was different on every song and if some of the songs on here didn’t exist at all and if it was a completely different album strong 2
The first couple songs are pretty good but I didn't like the next couple after that. Somewhat bizarre change of dynamic, much more dissonant and harsh sound with an off key harmonica in Fantastic Disaster. No. It's certainly an eclectic mix of styles. I generally don't like most of it, whether it's lo-fi, garage rock, punk, alt rock or indie or whatever. Sacred Attention is a bright spot, I like the riffing. The acoustic Think as well. Overall, too many songs too, felt incredibly long for only 46 minutes. Not for me.
A little too experimental for my taste. But unlike Captain Beefheart, they know where the business end of their instrument is...
Although I can appreciate how seminal this album might be, in 2024 it sounds like every single grunge band from the 90s.
Menee nopeesti huutamiseksi kuulemma oo mitäön sanottavaa... Vähän saa tunnetta peliin.. Noh Noh..
“Homemade” saved this messy garage band album for me, but there’s still the rest to deal with.
Indie rock med en massa punk och heavy drag. Gillar dom mera lugna, melodiska låtarna bättre.
Very, very patchy. There are a couple of songs that are more than half way decent (Soul & Fire the obvious one), but a lot that is less good, alongside some really tuneless crap. 2/5 on the strength of the better songs, there are a lot of tracks on here that barely deserve a 1 though.
You can tell that this band suffered from the fate of having three songwriters working separately. Their styles clashed. And some songs seem half-baked, more like vague ideas than fully articulated pieces. That said, some of these songs are worth a listen: "Soul And Fire", "Two Years Two Days", and "Think".
This album is a mixed bag. Some songs are great, but some are just horrendous. Unfortunately it leans more in the bad category...
I actually think this is bland to the point of almost being offensive. The first song is okay, but it deteriorates quickly into background noise.
a couple of OK tracks, quite a few bad tracks - 2 stars
Noteworthy songs - 808080808 Magical Dream - Kinda catchy synth, but the rest is bland. Ancodia - Good background noise. Cobra Bora - Actually kind of cool, reminds me of Bomberman Hero. Pacific 202 - N64 vibes, but melody isn't great. Donkey Doctor - Nothing too special, weird ending. 808080808 - Really cool beginning. A little slow in the middle but stays interesting enough. Sunrise - Nothing remarkable. The Fat Shadow - Eerie. Very short.
No lo terminé, no me gustó
Don’t have a lot to say about this album. Felt very mediocre to me.
indie rock boys take even a single vocal lesson challenge, I promise you can continue to sing with grit and you can choose to be off key if you want to but you can do it without all of those warbles and unplanned cracks baby!!!!!!! the instrument/music part was good
I guess they were highly influential but this album unfortunately lacks proper recording
A very conflicting album. I didn’t mind the dreary emo style songs, but I wasn’t a fan of the messy punk/ska/metal influenced ones.
????????
The first song was so good. And then it just went a bit off the rails. Some parts were enjoyable but overall too experimental for me.
This really did not do it for me. In fact it kind of annoyed me. So much so that I am not in the mood to say anything more. It nearly went down to a 1 at one point
I was really hoping that I would enjoy this one. Was a band I hadn't heard before signed to a label that I like. Seemed like the perfect recipe for me to find a hidden gem. Pretty disappointed overall. Nothing really stood out for me here.
A little too long on the indie video. Bakesale is better
Loved the start, went off it a bit
Experimentele indierock uit de vroege jaren '90. Sommige nummers zijn gewoon heel prima, bij sommige nummers gaan ze een stap te ver met experimenteren en gaan ze een beetje lelijk op hun bek wat mij betreft. Ik weet niet of het gepast is om huismerk Nirvana te zeggen, maar een klein beetje huismerk Nirvana is het wel. En dan net wat meer verlegen om aandacht. Door die mislukte experimenten gaat dit niet hoog scoren, want dit album wil je door bepaalde tracks niet nog een keer aanzetten. Ik noem een 'Fantastic Disaster', maar zo zijn er meer tracks met terecht amper streams. Een grap die ik niet begrijp en die te lang duurt. Vanaf ongeveer track 4 drijf je als een veerpont op en neer tussen verveling en irritatie. Ik ga voor 2 sterren, ondanks een paar aardige tracks.
It started boring, then got my interest a bit. Then the last half was just boring.
A bit too noisy for my tastes.
This album stinks and it boring.
This album stinks and is boring
Did not enjoy listening to this...not cohesive at all.
Music for ADHD?
Pareceu-me um roquito com algumas intenções em ter algum peso nas guitarras. Só que o vocal é muito típico desse rock inofensivo.
Really don’t understand the appeal, nothing really drew me in, just seemed like generic at best, boring indie rock
I've got to admit that this was a tough listen to begin with. It is not exactly top of the list for harmonious, pleasant-sounding music. It did kinda grow on me, but I have to say that having heard it once was probably enough.
In parts 90s grunge, in other parts channelling their inner Captain Beefheart and taking the piss. That’s when ‘Bubble & Scrape’ is probably at its most interesting and genuinely good in my opinion. It’s kind of bog standard and forgettable alt rock the rest of the time.
Dull, when it isn't being actively unpleasant. Second time through was marginally less grating but that will be my last listen ever, thank you very much.
Never heard this one, but I have heard some of their next album Bakesale and I prefer that one
Another in one ear and out the other
Meh. Its not bad, but its pretty boring. 2/5
Qui dit grunge ne nécessite pas forcément que le son soit super dissonant pour faire rageux ! Je comprends qu'on s'amuse avec les sonorités et la "justesse" mais certaines chansons ont été presque pénibles à écouter (Fantastic disaster, Elixir is Zog). Selon moi un album inégal même si certaines chansons sont très cool. Je ne mets que 2 parce que pas pleinement transportée, même si j'emmène néanmoins quelques chansons avec moi (Soul and Fire, Happily Divided, Sacred Attention).
This thing is noisy and a bit all over the place. My favorite moments on this tended to be the softer and more melodic tracks which is not the point of this record. I like some noise rock punk type music but this was a bit too dysfunctional for me to get into. I can totally see people really enjoying this but it isn't something I'm enjoying right now.
The only thing consistent in this album is inconsistency. Sad acoustic, fast electric, this song needs a harmonica!!! I thought I was really going to like this but ended up mediocre. Best points are like bad Weezer or Bad REM.
I was a young man back in the 90s and I remember this band and a slew of other "indie" bands that were almost universally loved by music "hipsters." Pavement is the king of these bands. None of them were that good? I should be nostalgic for this stuff, but I'm not.
Boring... Yawn
Sounds like a highschool band except soul and fire which sounds like a sophomore college band
Nice sound, but it feels like I've heard that sound a hundred times before. And after, seeing this is from '93.
Angry American kids. 3/10
Not really my cuppa. I like the harder punk songs like Sister and Flood. Soul and Fire was good too. Not too sure why it's on the list 2.5
Absolutely nothing catchy about this.
This album was so confusing every song was completely different there was no cohesiveness.
Some good stuff but mostly not.
The songs that I liked seemed to be on some kind of slow mo speed. Most of the vocals are just not good. Only a few songs made this album worthy of a listen.
The first song is the best. Everything else just feels a bit empty. Crazy how this grunge rock just took over. Some of it has glimpses of indie rock and what’s to come but it just doesn’t quite hit like nirvana or the strokes. Ya I keep skipping songs and just wanna listen to nirvana Sacred attention is alright. That’s what the album is coming off as. It’s alright. It’s not amazing it’s not bad but it’s background. I appreciate the challenge of listening to all these albums I was just waiting for it to get bad. And ya this is just meh. It’s like stereotypical rock music for “guy who does action movie”. And the vocals don’t punch he sounds a bit lazy. Maybe that’s the style. Idk it just isn’t hitting. Oh nevermind there’s some songs where they go crazy vocal wise. It’s like a weird mish mash of genres they want to try out but it doesn’t go in any direction. Emma get wild is fun. But vocals mehhh Again best song is Soul and Fire the first song on the album First mehh album of the 1001
A few good songs but too much simple punk.
It wasn't bad, but none of it caught my attention. I feel a little bad because this is becoming a very common review for me but I guess with 1001 albums it's inevitable to get a lot of samey stuff that doesn't do it for me.
Favourite: Happily Divided
An interesting listen but no real standouts.
This doesn't do it for me. The highs aren't very high (2/3 decent songs), and if I'm not in the mood it grates.
Started okay but became a bit too much for me
Some catchy song titles for some standard issue grunge.
Why
кто вообще эту хуету слушает
Started and stopped this album several times. It turned out ok though as the repeat listens kinda got me into Soul and Fire had become familiar
First song was good, plus a couple others, but the atonal songs annoyed me. It also seemed the songs were all over the place in terms of style
It leans dangerously close to wimp-rock, but the short sharp bursts of Dinosaur Jr-esque energy save it from damnation. I hear a lot of Violent Femmes influence here. I wish I heard more.
Ordinary and forgettable.
Beetje te wacky, maar niet perse slecht
a forgettable indie album. makes me wonder why sebadoh was even included. there's so little to be remarked upon. i suppose it is early for that indie sound, so it is a predecessor, but ehh.
I actually kind of liked the opening track (Soul and Fire), but things tapered off quite a bit after this. Another album where I didn't hate it, but it also didn't really do anything for me. When I am not familiar with a band and am hearing their work for the first time, I often associate them with something I know. In this case, these guys gave me Nirvana vibes for days. That said, they lacked the Nirvana gravitas; the vocals and music both didn't have quite the same catch as Kurt Cobain and the rest of the Nirvana band, respectively.
Style of punk rock
Yeah, no. First song sounded promising but, although I might have missed something in a somewhat distracted listening, I didn’t like the rest of this much at all.
Nope
Vieles unhörbar. Bei Einigen wippte ich mit.
The wiki article and the 1001 albums book blurb make a big deal of this album being a collective effort and I can see why - the quality difference of the contributors is massive. Pretty much all of the Barlow tracks are quite good, solid 4 stars. On the other hand, Gaffney's stuff is absolutely unlistenable, unredeemably 1 star. Loewenstein's tracks are somewhere inbetween, but mostly not bad. In conclusion, this could have been a good album if they hadn't let Gaffney meddle with it.
More indie than rock for me. Just a couple appealing tunes for me.
Forgettable album but wasn’t bad
It reminds me of the alternative music that the artsy kids would listen to in the early 90's. It's not bad but probably not for me. It's kind of experimental.
It started okay, then dipped straight to the bottom, with few terrible songs I couldn't stand, and then finally it recovered a bit with few generic alt rock songs, whatever that really entails. The band sounds very 90s, quality straight from garage, but in my opinion not in a good way, more like St. Anger kind of way. Few redeeming songs, but honestly, I just want to forget everything about this album.
Got a bit cloying after a while... ok but not my cup of tea
Not my normal listen
I genuinely have no idea what I think about this album. Bubble and Scrape is all over the place. At times it hits something really special. There are moments of scrappy, lo fi brilliance where the melodies shine through the fuzz and the emotion feels raw and honest. Then, almost without warning, it veers into something that feels half formed or deliberately messy to the point of frustration. That unpredictability is probably part of its charm. It feels unfiltered and personal, like you are hearing ideas as they spill out rather than neatly packaged songs. But it also makes for a stop start listening experience. Just as I was getting pulled in, a track would come along that completely lost me. There is definitely something here though. Enough strong moments to make me think it deserves another listen. This feels like one of those records that might click properly with time rather than on first listen
Garage/niche 90s rock for sure. Little punk but not great.
Started off promising but turned middle of the road pretty quickly
I’ve heard this comment recently, so I may have even stolen it from this chat…but this sounds exactly like the kind of forgettable rock that would be playing in The Bronze in Buffy the Vampire Slayer to a group of bored extras.
Kinda generic 90's alt grunge kinda sound. Didn't catch my ear much but wasn't bad. 2.5
It was just alright. Good songs here and there, not the biggest fan
I was enjoying this album, but then they started doing this weird screamy little bit. Eh? It sounds weird. I HATED the song "Fantastic Disaster" because of the clashing instruments.
First song was great and then it was all over the place from alt to grunge to hardcoreish? Bad 2/5
Scraping the barrel in terms of albums that could be considered great.
At its best, on par with other grungy fare from this time. But overall less polished than many of their contemporaries. Feels like music folks cling to because it makes them different...
Good lord, some of those songs were bad. I normally like harmonica, but ideally the player would know how to play the harmonica. I had to take a few breaks during this album. High highs and low lows. I do appreciate some chaos, but when I actively don't like what I'm hearing, I just can't rate it highly.
Not the best. Bleh.
Just not feeling it
Rock indie
Listened to this a few times and nothing really stuck, just found it very middle if the road. Surprising, because I really like Dinosaur Jr and a lot of 90s slacker rock.
I've always liked the idea of Sebadoh more than the actual music they produce. I definitely prefer their more melodic stuff. Happily Divided is nice.
I've never been keen on screaming in music, but otherwise this was ok.
First song is great and sets it up to be a lofi album. Rest is mid
Who on earth are this bunch
Aika nopeasti taipui negatiivisen puolelle tämä kokemus. Onneksi lähes puolet biiseistä oli spottarissa estyneitä toistumaan...
Next 5 songs played by my Spotify Algorithm: Yo La Tengo - Decora The Vaselines - The Day I Was a Horse The Amps - She was a Girl Eric's Trip - Girlfriend Swervedriver -MM Abduction
Nope
Woah. This is not good. These songs are just a mess of weird. And not in a good way.
Didn’t like it. I had a flashback when every school friend of mine played this kind of music back in the day with similar songwriting skill and level. Maybe it’s cool but after Stevie Wonder album I feel like I should give it a 1 , but I’m a good person and will give it a 2
1.5/5
not for me
I've never heard of them before, but now I know. Really not a fan. It's chaotic and random at times. There was some resemblance of The Violent Femmes, but overall I'll pass.
Initial impression, the band name reminds me of trig function shit (sohcahtoa). Bad start. First few tracks made me want to punch my own ticket. Abysmal start. It got better (it was hard to get worse) but not by much.
Not that exciting to me.
Where to begin. It’s a chaotic album. It’s an interesting blend of lofi, Nirvana, and darkish 80s post punk. Makes sense given that they share band members with Dinosaur Jr. The most fascinating track is Fantastic Disaster where every instrument (including vocals) seems to play on its own key. Maybe the instruments are even out of tune. At least you can save time playing these kind of songs live because you don’t need to tune? But on the acoustic or stripped back numbers you can feel an In Utero vibe. Just the right level of lofi. So clearly these guys know how to play. So I give it a 2/5 for effort. I feel like it’s uncool to like bands like this but I honestly feel no emotional connection.
Album long et difficile à écouter. Pas surpris que seul le premier soit connu
This album was so varied - It started with songs that were fairly ambient and chill, had a couple of interesting ones, and then played a couple of garbage songs that were v abrasive. I wouldn't listen to it through again, but there were a couple of songs in here that were alright.
This was very lo fi 90s alt rock/indie and it was fine
2.5/5
Mediocre '90s rock.
This was very blah 90s rock
Couldn't wait for this to be over.
Meh
There are moments on this album, good songs and fun guitar riffs. Then the next song is a heavily distorted screamo tune. It's fine but it gave me whiplash. Song going on my "1001 Songs" Playlist: Sacred Attention Other Songs Going On My "1001 Albums Savelist" Playlist: Homemade, Soul and Fire
too all over the place, Think was good tho
Super weak 90's alternative
I had only heard Brand New Love (as well as several covers of it) before today. That song is not in this album,but boy do I wish that it was. I really expected this to be better. It's cool that they influenced a lot of cool bands and maybe they have some other good songs and albums elsewhere but this fell flat for me.
1st September 2023 Caught up over the weekend - Cox and Georgia on Saturday in Stroud market and Tess and Ollie on Sunday with a bit of Barnett’s in Cheltenham. Grungy indie with screaming vocals, Jen really not a fan.
Well, I sure listened to that. I can't even give it the coveted honor of a 1, since that would define it as noteworthy.
Noise
Very middling grunge.
есть несколько действительно хороших песен, а так посредственно
I'm having a hard time rating this.
Nah... That's not it. It doesn't hit. It's bland. 2 out of 5 is very generous.
a times a chore to get through. just not my thing. Think (Let Tomorrow Be) was pretty good
First listen Saved 5/17 Top track: Soul and Fire
This album passed me by when it was released and will pass me by now. There are much better examples of this genre
Felt a little wild and unorganized. But not terrible.
This is not an interesting listen for me.
Y tho? 4/10
Soul and Fire on hyvin rakennettu avaus. Fantastic Disaster, Exlisir Is Zog ym. ovat vihoviimeistä paskaa. Kuka olisi uskonut, että epävireisyys ei automaattisesti kuulosta hyvältä?
Could not get into it at all. It sounded bad at times, but I think it was done ironically. Not that it changes much for me, because it still sounds bad even if done ironically.
It's hit and miss. Not essential to me. Favorite song: Homemade
Unohtunut nähköjään arvostella. En tykännyt. 2/5
Very disjointed listen. You can tell this is three artists with three distinct styles and it just never flows from one track to the next.
Une atrocité de plus récoltant 2/5. Robert on t'a déjà dit, quitte à nous mettre de la merde vasy franco qu'on puisse au moins rigoler un peu en mettant des 1/5.
Cat: I enjoyed listening to this. 90s melancholy one minute, 90s punk the next. Some of the lyrics are meh. AJ: singing about emotions without any emotion. Weird vibe. Find myself wanting to like it but I don’t.
Sacred Attention singlehandedly saving this from being an easy 1. Really like the line "I am here to say what's done is done / Serving shark's fin soup for everyone" though lmao
Grungy 90s indie rock. Not terrible, but kind of tuneless and boring despite all the gestures at experimentation. Not a fan of the vocals. Best song: maybe Homemade
This album reinforces a belief I hold where the 1001 author held a list of randomized albums released over the last 70 years on a dart board and threw darts. If it landed on your album, congrats! You're now on the 1001 "greatest" list. That's a long winded way of me saying that this kind of sucked - garage band at best. 4/10.
Snuser faktisk på 1. Makan til kjedelig og uinspirert musikk. Fantastic Disaster fikk meg til å rynke på nesa flere ganger. Æsj.
I can't tell if these guys are trying to be funny or not. A number of the songs sound like the hidden track at the end of a CD. It's funny at first, and then you're like "OK, so what else is there?... oh, the song is the joke. <skip>" There are a few good songs on here, I particularly liked "Homemade." That felt like a conscious decision to make a song with lyrics that made _sense_, unlike "Elixir is Zog." But for the most part it still felt like a couple of guys in a cheap studio trying things out for the first time. I mean, I get the charm of that for lo-fi, indie rock, but you still have to have actual _songs_. I first got the sense they were trying to mash up Nirvana with something like They Might Be Giants, but TMBG are at least _witty_. These guys are just... dumb. And you can be dumb, but your music better be catchy. And aside from a few songs, this is not.
Dated, and dull.
Sounded like something someone you kinda know would tell you they made and you’d say it’s good not to be rude.
Not a lot I enjoyed about this one. The vocals are flat and boring. There are some good riffs here and there but the music rarely comes together and becomes a good song. I also didn't buy the moments that get scream-y and tip into hardcore. Those moments should feel cathartic. Here they felt grating. “Think (Let Tomorrow Bee)” was a sweet song — a pleasant surprise near the end.
Wow what an interesting start. I don't think I've ever heard a record start with a song that begins with a specific BPM and then starts to slow down within the first 5 seconds. It's really perplexing from a musical/production viewpoint but also intriguing from an artistic viewpoint. So this being an early 1990's band this of course has that edgy grungy energy but it's a little more muted than the bigger acts of that time. I dig the experimentation / exploration in "Fantastic Disaster" but it's actually a little boring to me. Something just seems missing in the execution. The mix doesn't help it- there's parts that I imagine should feel more "in your face" but they aren't. Yea this was just alright to me. I think it won't really be a release that sticks with me.
Pierwsze 3-4 utwory to chyba jakiś żart, nie da się tego słuchać. Na koniec trochę lepiej ale już byłem zniesmaczony
This is painful to get through, well off key and off beat the whole way through, and sometimes I can see the artistic intent with that sort of thing (like I could even see it with Bjork) but ilthere didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for it here. There were a couple of bright spots which rescued this album from a one but the inconsistency really kills this one
It vacillates from juvenile white boy breakup musings poorly masquerading as poignant indie lyricism to juvenile white boy wannabe Beck manufactured weirdness that tries way too hard. I already dated this loser in college, I don't need to hear his crappy album now years later.
This is sure a Sub Pop release. Which I say with a reasonable amount of love, at least for a listen or two. There are several songs on Bubble & Scrape which invite that second listen. But Sebadoh doesn't capture the 30-years-later ear in any particular way, the looseness cliché and dialed down to calculated acceptable levels.
This is an unknown, but with an album cover like that, from 1993, it's gonna be alternative. Ok yep alternative, one of those deliberately bad and dissonant affairs. Like if the Presidents of the USA hadn't added hooks to their nonsense. There's a couple of reasonable tracks but you know what? The intent is there to make noisy shit. So I'm giving it the 2/5 it deserves.
I can't get past the terrible whiny vocals and dissonant grating chords. Totally makes sense that this band formed out of a falling out with Dinosaur Jr.
Boring emo drama
Rating: 5/10
Bummed out because it is so close to be a really good band/album. The vibe is great, but the song writing is garbage and the song album flow is weak.
Apparently it's supposed to sound bad, that doesn't mean I'll enjoy it because it still sounds bad. Had a good moment here and there.
Bauble and scrap.
There was a lot of stuff that sounded like this round at that time Not sure there was much about this that deserves elevation
What starts off calm, turns into a storm. The album is so difficult to listen to. It has the vocals and general sound of Nirvana but lacks any of the talent in songwriting that made Nirvana unique. Couldn’t get through it.
Never heard of this band/album before and it makes sense why. In the height of grunge and alternative music this band continued the trend but falls mostly flat. The aggressiveness is there but it sounds poorly done. The instrumentals sound generic and don’t excite. Overall this isn’t worth revisiting. 4.4/10
Sigh. Yet another bizarrely uninspiring album to pop up over here. Can't say I appreciate the "in your face" low-fi sound, either.
Yes
First time listening. Found myself enjoying a handful of the tracklist, but LOATHING much of it. Stronger lyrically than instrumentally. Yes, the wildly frenetic guitars and rhythm section can fluctuate on a dime, but it sounds very unpolished; the intentional lo-fi production is a turnoff. A no for me.
this is extremely not my jam
meh/
Just give me Dinosaur Jr, or Nirvana, or Pavement, or Pixies. This just is nowhere near as enjoyable as those examples, with a bare few tracks that I actually liked. Another one where its presence on the list is in question for me. 08/02/23
У меня осталось ощущение что это саундтрек к невышедшему подростковому фильму, только последовательность реверснули (первая песня должна в конце фильма стоять типо и так далее) Полуспокойный альбом с легкой подростковой бунтарностью и кучей меланхолии У fantastic disaster прикольное начало и интересная ритмика и в конце чел уснул на синте)))
Uninspiring. Sebadull would be a better band name.
Not all bad but certainly plenty. Decent start with Soul and Fire but fell off a cliff after that with a few redemption songs sprinkled in. Grunge punk angst without much form with a few exceptions 2.2
Not my favourite genre, but OK. 2/5
Everything on this album just sounds a little bit off. That's probably on purpose because I never got the feeling that they didn't know what they were doing but that said this was definitely not for me.
indie tedium
Interesting to hear. Liked some bits and pieces. But patchy.
Opening track is great, but the rest of the album is random, mostly tuneless and rough as guts.
Before today, I had never heard of Sebadoh. They are a 90's lo-fi indie rock band. Their co-founder and one of their vocalists, Lou Barlow, also co-founded the band Dinosaur Jr, which explains why those two bands sound similar. By times, Sebadoh sounds like a shittier Nirvana. In other songs, their sludgy guitars and slow beat makes them sound like Smashing Pumpkins. And still other times, their high energy songs have them sounding like the Vines or Primus. In certain songs, the instruments are horribly out of tune. Perhaps this is by design, but I personally find it painful to listen to. The lyrics are largely nonsensical, especially in their weird psychadelic songs included on this album such as Elixir is Zog. Overall, a standard indie rock record from the 90's. It blends in with the mass amount of other music from this genre and time period though. Nothing really jumped out at me. It wasn't bad, just not spectacular. Favourite songs: Flood, Soul and Fire, Two Years Two Days, Sacred Attention, Homemade (I think this song is about beating off, idk?) Least favourite songs: Elixir is Zog, Fantastic Disaster, Telescopic Alchemy, No Way Out (the last minute of the song sounds like someone channel surfing through random noise.... Why?!?) 2/5
2/17, 12%
Songs are kinda short, decent grunge, or just sounds normal I guess
Starts ok, but after that it´s just not what i like, all those short "idea´s"
Not for me.
Denna grupp har inte gjort särskilt mycket väsen av sig. Undrar vad det beror på......?
abit too disorganised, one second feels like metal, one second feels like the opposite
I was curious about this initially, since I generally like this sort of music and have heard of this band before. It started off alright, but as it continued the songs just kept sounding the same. I’ve never heard of this album before and don’t understand why it’s on the list.
I feel like I should like Sebadoh but just never really have. Not sure what I’m missing because there are tons of similar bands from the era I really enjoy. I even got to see a reunion show of theirs back in the 00s. Not a bad album, just not what I’m looking for really. I’m sure there were some but I was super busy and listening to this on the go, so I didn’t get a chance to write down standout tracks while I listened.
This sucks. This is exactly what I think of when I think of boring, overrated indie rock.
I guess Sebadoh was to grunge and 90s indie what bands like Country Joe and the Fish were to psychedelic rock? Which means to say that they were one of the first influential names to come up in the scene, but ultimately became overshadowed by the artists that came after them. Bubble and Scrape is essentially a record of demos, or at least that's what it sounds like. The lo-fi, somewhat minimally produced sound adds character to the music, but the end result pales in comparison to the rest of the genre. Like a beta version of something soon to be perfected. Well, at least they helped kickstart something new. Standout tracks were Homemade, Cliché, and Happily Divided.
I'd be lying if I didn't say I didn't want to listen to the album a second time. It is a bizarre record, but I think it has its place. Definitely the kind of album that probably has a very strong cult following. The opening track 'Soul And Fire' is a really damn good song. For some reason, I love the chaotic nature of 'Fantastic Disaster'. But overall, the album is not for me right now, though I can see it becoming an acquired taste. 2/5
I feel like I should have enjoyed this more. It's listed as indie music and although it's 90s (my least enjoyed decade) I do like indie stuff from every era. Yet this felt very disorienting. It couldn't really decide what it wanted to be and as a result didn't feel cohesive. Also the lofi quality just didn't work.