Roots rock reached a saturation point during the late 1980s, until
alt rock trumped forced authenticity with pop glumness. Bands like the
BoDeans had hit the charts’ glass ceiling while exhausting critics’
ability to devise new ways of selling the same old music to the same
old yuppies. If not for the TV show Party of Five, no one
would’ve heard the song “Closer to Free,” and the Wisconsin
retro-rockers would’ve disappeared like the Raindogs, Del Fuegos and
countless more.
Years before “Free,” the BoDeans had already fashioned a superb LP
with their 1986 debut, produced by T Bone Burnett. Finally remastered
and released on CD, Love & Hope & Sex & Dreams is a
treat for Americana fans or anyone wishing to hear rock played with
feeling, grace, and economy.
Domestic-abuse anthem “She’s a Runaway” presaged Thelma &
Louise and the Dixie Chicks, and still stands as the most feminist
and frightening country-rocker of the late 20th, while heartland pop
like “Still the Night” and “Angels” evoke the sound of a bar band in
heaven playing classic tunes you never heard on terrestrial radio. With
liner notes by Bruce Springsteen biographer Dave Marsh and a DVD of a
complete live 1985 set in Minneapolis, this reissue remind us that
there was some great roots-rock in the Reagan era. (Slash-reissue)
