Sebadoh - The Freed Man
Enough to make you reach for the tape recorder and that battered acoustic
| 09 Aug 2007
Album title:
The Freed Man
Artist:
Sebadoh
Label:
Domino
An expanded version of the original set, there are 52 tracks here - that's one for every US state, all brimming with lo-fi inventiveness. They're full of weird humour, folky musings and special moments of ambient strangeness, where Barlow and Gaffney edited-in field recordings of other tracks, tv adverts and supermarket happenings. With the longest track standing at a mere 2 minutes and 38 seconds, these short vignettes of young adulthood are at times hilariously twisted. As a result, it's not too difficult to chart the journey to Sebadoh's more celebrated (though their status has always remained as something of a cult) work from here, and then to Beck.
This album, important as one of the first releases of the US lo-fi movement, is a great reminder of times before the internet, when home-mixed tapes and fanzines ruled. It's enough to make you reach for the tape recorder and that battered acoustic. [Chris Bathgate]