Unsung Heroes: Naked Raygun

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Understand--

It had to happen. Maybe I jinxed it because this is the first Raygun album that I didn't buy on vinyl first. Maybe it was a letdown from holding a puny cd in my hand instead of a 12 inch platter. Maybe Albini was right about cds. Maybe Raygun was running out of steam. The cover was high rent, but the contents were not. The first track "Treason" is a strong one. There is something in the delivery and arrangement that makes this a very sad and heavy song, but unlike the Naked Raygun you'd expect. I mean a sad Raygun song? "Hips swinging" is like a breath of smelling salts that could have fit in easily on Basement Screams. There is a shining brilliance in "Hey you little South American Spanish-Speaking country. Watch me as I whip some political advisors right on ya." From that point on it's all down hill. "Understand" sounds like a leftover from Jettison and "Entrapment" is slow and listless. Bughouse is pretty good. "Wonder Beer" seems out of character, but comes through with a rousing chorus. "Never Follow" has an interesting chorus too, but the rest is, well, just the rest. Coming back to this record after so many years, it's more listenable now than it was then, but it's definitely not a must have. "Vagabond Dog" is a good too, and would have been better served as a change of pace on an earlier record. It's hard to tell what happened. The right elements are there and the production values are up again but something is not right. Perhaps Raygun should have taken a cue from "Which Side You're On" and ended themselves abruptly as well. The extra tracks are live performances from the Riviera in Chicago that only serve to reinforce what is lacking in Understand.

3 stars. The thing that kills me is that a mediocre Naked Raygun record should still be heads above the rest. their early efforts had raised the bar too high.

Raygun... Naked Raygun--

I didn't buy this in it's first release. Thought about it but never got around to it. I was unknowingly listening to it once in a noisy car, and found it utterly forgettable. Maybe it was my friend's double extra crappy car stereo. At the time, my friend said this was one of his favorites. I don't want to give the impression that his standards were low, but today he lives in his van parked out in front of my house. (Sorry Grover!) The cover is the most sophisticated since Basement Screams, and is the best thing about the record. The back photo on the re-release shows a very bored looking Kezdy, and while I don't ever remember him looking anything other than menacing, that can't be a good sign. Guitar leads mimic days of glory in the opening track. "The Grind" stands out if not only for it's odd retro guitar lead and other production gimicks that are also sprinkled throughout the rest of the album in what might have been an attempt to infuse new energy. "Jazz Gone Bad" is pretty good too. "Holding You" is from the heart, but sounded retro when it came out. More like Romeo Void than Naked Raygun. Strange Days' "Strange times that I'm going through..." is exactly how I felt trying to reconcile my ambivalence towards this release. "In My Head" starts off like it could turn the tide, almost, but ultimately doesn't. The folks who put this together must have also aggreed that the jig was finally up by this time. The other re-releases are full of fond recollections, even going so far as to mention Haggerty's exit before Raygun...Naked Raygun, but this time it's just lyrics and photos. This is not to slight Bill Stephens' talents for sure. The one live show I saw from this era (old habits die hard) left me less than satisfied. Extra tracks on this CD are a Chelsea cover (Last Drink) that sort of sounds like it was trasnfered from vinyl, and two Buzzcocks covers - Love Battery and Running Free - an interesting choice. The liner notes say that this one rivals the original, which may only be true because the Buzzcocks were in a haze of LSD at the time they recorded this song. Another "under the pillow" mic job. Raygun's version is also interesting because all the vocals are crystal clear. The recording was originally on the CD version of the aptly titled and forgettable Buzzcocks tribute, "Something's Gone Wrong Again".

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