The Lemonheads
Varshons - The End
FILTER Grade: 80%

While most people love to dwell on Evan Dando’s drug-laden past as the cause for his fall-from-grace, the times when he was making a charge at a solo career were what actually drained his material from The Lemonheads’ brand of alt-rock and into the nether regions of alt-country. Thus, it shouldn’t be a big surprise that Dando would use his Lemonheads mates for a covers record that features Gram Parsons, Townes Van Zandt and Leonard Cohen tunes. Granted, Dando’s musical knowledge is deep and Varshons throws a few curveballs via these half-forgotten singer-songwriters. Dutch electronica duo Arling & Cameron’s “Dirty Robot” is re-created somewhat faithfully, and up goes the production value on Wire’s “Fragile.” Surprisingly, the best moment comes with the album’s closer: a sparse, haunting version of Linda Perry/Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful.” Dando places the rather universal sentiments of “words can’t bring me down” into something that somewhat sums up how he probably wants to see his career—irony is absent, sentiment is apparent. Though it’s no breakthrough, Varshons serves as a nice holdover until the new set of material we’ve been promised.