After forming in an elite Boston private high school, the Lemonheads produced three of the scrappiest punk albums of the 1980s (on a label famed for releasing Oi! and ska records) before signing to a major and frontman Evan Dando becoming the Sassy darling of the alternative era and also (whether fairly or not) the poster boy for sell-out poseuring. His ’93 inclusion in People's Most Beautiful cemented the disdain, and near-viral hate-zines followed in its wake (the men's rights-adjacent Die, Evan Dando, Die and Kathleen Hannah's male-privilege-in-rock analysis My Life With Evan Dando, Popstar). But then there were perfect pop gems—like “Stove” and “Rudderless”—that carried an emotional weight that belied their shallow lyrical surface. Evan Dando as a figure was absurd, sure, but his songs were sweet and simple. And these facts, all these years later, hold true.

by Joshua James Amberson