Album Notes

Thankfully, Evelyn Forever haven't waited long to demonstrate their pop sensibilities and fine talent yet again. After last years' wonderful Nightclub Jitters, Evelyn Forever's greatest triumph was the originality they displayed with their signature sound - some of the chunkiest guitar noises you'll hear over thunderous drumming while maintaining a sense of melody. Now, with Lost In The Supermarket, Evelyn Forever have declared their refusal to remain stagnant and offer more of the same. Indeed, Lost In The Supermarket brings much to the table.

There are arrangements here that are truly inspired and really quite daring within the band's guitar-based format. Crush, the pounding opener, features a number of changes and shifts in a grab-bag of wonderful melodies and tempos. Even more impressive is Spin, with its even more dramatic changes and jumpy rhythm (and effective siren-like guitar in the background).

More than just a pop/rock band, Evelyn Forever pushes their abilities and their success rate is quite high. The distorted vocal on Magic Of The Moment works perfectly within the song's choppy rhythm. With a similar sounding opening, Evelyn Misunderstood has an ever better vocal arrangement, with a counterpart that is hard to not sing along to. The band even pulls off much with Cry, almost a hard rock doo-wop number.

Evelyn Forever are still all about hooks, and hooks are what they deliver. Baby Blue is pure pop all the way and Teenage L.M.S.'s snapping rhythm behind its biting lead guitar makes for a hook filled highlight. The real attention-getter here is Rockin' Chair, where the band takes their turn at an acoustic guitar based track. The vocal here is probably the best on the CD and the melody carries a hypnotic sway that is irresistible. As is often the case with Evelyn Forever, the guitar solo shines and it is wonderful to here this ability through an acoustic guitar. Here, the solo is kept fairly simple but effective.

Evelyn Forever carried themselves with the ability and confidence needed to make a mark on pop with Nightclub Jitters. Often, such promise ends up just capturing a moment in time and never progresses from there. Lost In The Supermarket not only bypasses such a threat - it laughs at it.

Claudio Sossi

Shake It Up! December 1998