Evan Dando: Baby I'm Bored

Reviewed by RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * * )

This the is first studio album under his own name from the Lemonheads' leader who went MIA after a legendary bout of rock'n'roll behaviour in the late 90s which put paid to the band's career.

Dando's long-lost weekend predictably informs many of the songs here, at its most obvious on the amusingly mopey ballad Why Do You Do This To Yourself? ("You stayed awake for 14 days and then you slept for a week").

But even with the involvement of many a guest player, celebrated producer Jon Brion and a couple of songs from pens other than Dando's - Aussie cohort Ben Lee contributes his All My Life and Hard Drive - this isn't that big a stylistic shift from his band years.

It does veer towards acoustic-driven alt-country (especially on the Jayhawks-ish It Looks Like You). And there is a Neil Young & Crazy Horse-swagger to the likes of My Idea, and Rancho Santa Fe that give parts of this an appealing looseness underneath the life-changing experiences being discussed in the lyrics.

Elsewhere, it's spiky on the Costelloesque Waking Up (with a piano seemingly pinched from Abba), while Dando gets in touch with his former grunge-era self on the The Same Thing You Thought Hard About Is the Same Part I Can Live Without. That one is a fizzy highlight.

But unfortunately it also shows what stops this set fully qualifying as the triumphant post-rehab album - that while the songs sing the 12-step blues, it's an album of such ambling energy that makes it feel longer than its tidy 38 minutes.

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