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8.0
5068
8.0 |
Evening Standard
Evan Dando sings sweet or low as the occasion demands and when he needs help, Kate Moss (Dirty Robot) and Liv Tyler (Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye) are happy to oblige
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8.0
5074
8.0 |
The Guardian
This is worth an hour of anybody's time
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8.0
5077
8.0 |
The Scotsman
Evan Dando should consider always singing other people's songs because this covers album is the loveliest thing he has recorded in years
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8.0
5081
8.0 |
The Sunday Times
Gram Parsons and Townes Van Zandt songs suit his frazzled cow-poke croon perfectly, but he also finds affecting tunes lurking within Wire’s micro-punk masterpiece Fragile and Christina Aguilera’s Beautiful
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8.0
5082
8.0 |
NME
Almost everything sounds like it always has been, and always will be, an original Lemonheads track
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7.0
5671
7.0 |
PopMatters
Varshons may risk misinterpretation because of its “covers” veneer. But this is no standards collection and Dando isn’t singing the hits. The album is instead a sort of late-career triumph for the Lemonheads. By convincingly honoring this significant rock pedigree, the band reveals a neglected or heretofore hidden stylistic agility
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7.0
5076
7.0 |
musicOMH
Plays like a mix tape, unpredictable and full of delightful little surprises, which only adds to the laidback charm of the whole project. So for all the countryish pop that you expect from Dando the album also deviates into somewhat less familiar electro-pop territory
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6.0
5080
6.0 |
The Observer
The album's first half of slacker simplicity mixed with classic Americana gives way to strung-out psychedelia, interrupted only by… Kate Moss on vapid vocals
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6.0
7702
6.0 |
Uncut
Print edition only
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6.0
5078
6.0 |
Scotland on Sunday
Best reinvention? Fragile by UK indie heroes Wire, now a country pop drawl. The surprise package necessary for any good mix tape
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6.0
5069
6.0 |
Drowned In Sound
Basically, Dando fucks Varshons up just enough to stop it being an actively great covers record – in recent terms The Condo Fucks’ mighty Fuckbook stomps over it – but not enough to detract from the truth that the thread drawing the successful songs together is the still-beating talent of Evan Dando, non-dickhead version
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6.0
5071
6.0 |
The Quietus
A finale that wouldn’t be out of place at a cabaret, equal parts insecure and defiant accompanied by brief flashes of searing electric guitar, it’s a fitting epitaph for a man simultaneously trying to recapture and evolve from his former glories
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6.0
5072
6.0 |
Spin
Covers have accounted for some of the Lemonheads' most memorable moments. So aging alt-rock pin-up Evan Dando doing a full covers album seems almost seems too obvious.
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6.0
5073
6.0 |
Uncut
The Lemonheads were great at cover versions because they – unlike a wearisome quantity of their indie rock fellows – genuinely respected and admired the source materials, rather than using the original songs as props for their own “subversive” cleverness. At best, Varshons is a joy forever. Even at worst, it’s a forgiveable, even likeable, labour of love
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4.7
5070
4.7 |
Pitchfork
The depth and breadth of the tracklist are commendable but often work against the band. Dando obviously has a large collection of vinyl and a good knowledge of rarely trampled pop terrain, but what good is it if most everything here comes across as either half-assed or poorly chosen?
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4.0
5079
4.0 |
Independent on Sunday
Even if you are an admirer of jingle-jangle slacker-pop on its own merits, it's absent from Varshons
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4.0
5075
4.0 |
The Independent
Evan Dando continues his career as the slacker's slacker with this collection of cover versions, approached with such lack of interest that he couldn't be bothered to source the songs himself, but instead relied upon mixtapes given him by the Butthole Surfers' Gibby Haynes, producer for the project
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