Everclear Sparkle And Fade: 20th Anniversary Edition on 180g LP from Intervention Records
Everclear's Breakout Alt-Rock Album Includes Smash-Hit "Santa Monica": Mastered from the Original Master Tapes By Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and Pressed at RTI
Combining the classic 70s rock that drives Foo Fighters and the melodic punk that inspired Nirvana, Everclear emerged on the pop-culture landscape with its smash Sparkle and Fade as part of the alternate-rock wave ushered in by the likes of Pixies and Husker Dü. Aligning abrasive guitars with naked emotional expression to beat back the scourge of vapidity and triumph over pain, Everclear joined the likes of the Smashing Pumpkins and Weezer in emerging as diverse, soul-searching artists linked by forceful authenticity.
The key to the 1994 record's lasting power relates to frontman Art Alexakis, who embraced a heroic middle-class identity rejected by many of his anti-hero pasts. Alexakis' candor comes through in the lyrics of his songs, which often mirror the jaded experiences of his past. His dad split when he was young. The singer and his mother lived in housing projects. He lost those closest to him to drugs and suicide, and nearly lost himself in both as well. Sparkle and Fade isn't the stuff of VH1's "Behind The Music," then, but, as Rolling Stone lovingly declared, "a slob's way of exerting his tiny bit of control over a cruel word."
Everclear's transformative appeal and popular reach permeate in hits such as the promising build of "Heartspark Dollarsign" and assertive "Santa Monica," distinguished with the contagious refrain "We can live beside the ocean/Leave the fire behind/Swim out past the breakers/Watch the world die." Like the rest of Sparkle and Fade, it's escapism at its best, and a call to permanently put vanilla-flavored protocol in the rear-view mirror. There's something better out there, and on this Top 25 set, Everclear find it again and again.
Mastered from the original master tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and pressed at RTI, this Intervention Records 180g LP features faithfully restored album artwork and a Stoughton "old-style" jacket for the ultimate in quality.
Features:
• Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio
• Remastered from the original master tapes
• Dead-quiet 180-gram vinyl pressed at RTI
• Exquisitely restored cover art printed by Stoughton