Sparkle and Fade by Everclear (CD, May-1995, Capitol/EMI Records)

Everclear are one of those bands that have a powerful vocal / music combination - throw out some great tracks, yet often get overlooked!!
Perhaps this was to do with timing.....the early 90s was the grunge era, and this movement had such a powerful hold on its audience at the time, it was hard for anything or anyone else to break through. Many bands tried to hard - failing miserably , to replicate the grunge sound in a time that it was dying!
Everclear managed to provide some unique sounds though can also be cited for also falling into the 'trying to be grunge' bandwagon - but where they seperate from this sound, they developed their success!!
This album - A 1995 Release, their second; has to be noted for the powerful and highly listenable track - Santa Monica, a thumping, raucous song which really shows of frontman Art Alexakis' rich voice which really emits his emotions on the song!!
The album is not really consistent on its sound, but is on quality - Heroin Gril is fast, furious, though Art talks his way rather than sings...it works, its a great tracks.....but he has such a great voice, his talents lack a little on this compared to his strength on Santa Monica! And this style does seem to work well as also seen on tracks like Her Brand New Skin!!
While this album has some weaker offerings - Queen of the Air for example does not work for me.....it has more good than bad, and is one of the better albums to come out of the post grunge era!! I enjoy this and many of the tracks are a pleasant surprise as I revisit this for my review!

One of my latter Everclear album purchases, but one of their better albums. This was Art's breakthrough album with Everclear, after the failure of Shindig and Colorfinger back in 1991. Unlike most Everclear albums I don't enjoy the first track as much as the rest, but "Electra..." is still good, and the album picks up afterward and goes on a steady upward climb until the the finish. A nice fourteen track Alt-Rock, Grunge album that covers many aspects of life, and guarantees a good listen. Stand-out tracks: "Santa Monica", "Heartspark Dollarsign", "The Twistinside", "Pale Green Stars".

The product was in good condition and delivered on time. I played this CD and it had no skips. I have no complaints at all about this purchase.

This cd was of great quality. It played flawlessly. The seller provided speedy shipping at a good price!