Kerosene Hat

by

Cracker

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One of the first albums in my now gigantic collection, Kerosene Hat is an odd man out, difficult to categorize despite its familiar roots-rock sound. Oddly romantic-sounding without trying to be (actually, all the more so for the fact that its blunt irony and unforced wittiness removes all "romatic" cliches leaving it sounding surprisingly honest and clear of hackneyed sentimentalism) it seems closer in hindsight to "alt-country" than to any of its grunge-rock contemporaries. I'd place it in the same basic category as the Jayhawks' "Hollywood Town Hall" which came out around the same time. What amazes me is that an album like this actually contained some "hits" which appealed to the popular consciousness enough to get Cracker on MTV and all over burgeoning alt-rock radio stations. Usually bands this intelligent are doomed to obscurity, for record geeks like me (and possibly you) to find and treasure while our girlfriends roll their eyes.

Like one reviewer below, I too would listen to this album back in high school and dream of beautiful women. I see no shame in that. It's an album that induces such hopefulness (or wishful thinking), and that's saying something for it. No it's not "Exile on Main Street" but it's in that vein for those of us who lived and breathed the early alt-rock movement, before crass commericialism sucked all the life out of it.

I'll conclude this diatribe by urging Cracker to create another album this good. I know they'll never read this, but in case someone who knows them does, please pass on the message.

By far their best. And that's just the beginning.

I played this album out my ninth grade year. I couldn't get enough of it. I would listen to "Loser," "I Want Everything" and "Take Me Down To The Infirmary" and dream about beautiful women.... Sound stupid? Ok. It was, but the magic this album created for me was no fluke. This album is a timeless classic for anyone like me who lived through and was influenced heart and soul by the alternative rock movement. This album was like religion for me.

"Low" and "Get Off This" are the obvious go to's when you don't know what else to play, but "Movie Star," "Nostalgia," and "Sweet Potatoe" are just as timeless.

This is THE Cracker album to own. I'd even take this over their greatest hits, any day. Timeless.