Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart
Studio album by
Camper Van Beethoven
ReleasedMay 24, 1988
RecordedSummer/Fall 1987
GenreAlternative rock
Length41:53
LabelVirgin
ProducerDennis Herring
Camper Van Beethoven chronology
Vampire Can Mating Oven
(1987) 		Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart
(1988) 		Key Lime Pie
(1989)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
NME5/10[2]
The Philadelphia Inquirer[3]
PopMatters8/10[4]
Rolling Stone[5]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[6]
Spin Alternative Record Guide8/10[7]
The Village VoiceB+[8]

Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart is a 1988 album by Camper Van Beethoven, released on Virgin Records. It was the band's first major-label album, and was produced by Dennis Herring, the first time the band had used an outside producer.

The lineup on the album included David Lowery on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Jonathan Segel on violin, mandolin, keyboards, guitar and backing vocals, Victor Krummenacher on bass and backing vocals, Greg Lisher on lead guitar, and Chris Pedersen on drums. It was the first Camper Van Beethoven album not to feature founding guitarist/drummer/multi-instrumentalist Chris Molla.

The album featured the band's trademark eclectic mix of musics, including folk, ska, Eastern European music, Americana, psychedelic rock, and Middle-Eastern music. Despite this, it has a considerably slicker and more mainstream sound than the band's previous, more garage-rock oriented albums, largely due to Herring's production. The reunited Camper Van Beethoven features a number of tracks from the album in its setlists, including most of the first side, as well as "Waka", "Tania", and "Life Is Grand" from the second side.

Lowery described the inclusion of the folk song "O Death" as a tribute to the American 1960s psychedelic band Kaleidoscope, who included their version of the song on their album Side Trips.[9]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Camper Van Beethoven (David Lowery, Jonathan Segel, Greg Lisher, Victor Krummenacher, Chris Pedersen), except as noted

Side One
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Eye of Fatima (Part One)" 2:37
2."Eye of Fatima (Part Two)" 2:17
3."O Death"Traditional, arranged by Camper Van Beethoven3:07
4."She Divines Water" 3:52
5."Devil Song" 1:59
6."One of These Days" 3:27
7."Turquoise Jewelry" 3:07
Side Two
No.TitleLength
8."Waka"2:46
9."Change Your Mind"3:03
10."My Path Belated"2:35
11."Never Go Back"3:25
12."The Fool"2:37
13."Tania"3:48
14."Life Is Grand"3:23
Total length:41:53
Bonus Tracks, 2014 Omnivore Reissue
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
15."Love is a Weed" 2:04
16."Harmony In My Head" (covering Buzzcocks (1979))Steve Diggle2:46
17."Wade in the Water" (covering Herb Alpert version (1967))Herb Alpert, Bob Edmonson, John Pisano1:23
18."Eye of Fatima Pts. 1 & 2" (Edit) 3:27
19."The Day That Lassie Went to the Moon" (Live) (Recorded Oct 1988, Toads, New Haven, CT)Lowery, David McDaniel3:04
20."One of These Days" (Live) 3:25
21."Smash It Up" (Live) (covering The Damned (1979))Rat Scabies, Captain Sensible, Dave Vanian, Alasdair Ward3:20
22."Seven Languages" (Live)Lowery, Krummenacher, Lisher, Pedersen, Segel4:16
23."Kodachrome" (Live) (covering Paul Simon (1973))Paul Simon3:03
24."Hanging Around" (Live) (covering The Stranglers (1977))Hugh Cornwell, Dave Greenfield, Jean-Jacques Burnel, Jet Black3:42
25."Pope Festival" 3:00
Total length:75:18

On the reissue, tracks 15-17 are from the "Life Is Grand" single, track 18 is from the "Eye of Fatima"/"Turquoise Jewelry" promo single, and track 25 is from the 1987 compilation At Dianne's Place. Tracks 20-24 were recorded October 14, 1988 at UMass Amherst, Amherst, MA; they and track 19 were previously unreleased.

References

  1. ^ Deming, Mark. "Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart – Camper Van Beethoven". AllMusic. Retrieved March 17, 2010.
  2. ^ Romney, Jonathan (May 21, 1988). "Camper Van Beethoven: Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart". NME. p. 33.
  3. ^ Tucker, Ken (May 22, 1988). "Debut album of rapper MC Lyte". The Philadelphia Inquirer.
  4. ^ Houle, Zachary (February 14, 2014). "Camper Van Beethoven: Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart / Key Lime Pie". PopMatters. Archived from the original on March 2, 2014. Retrieved February 14, 2018.
  5. ^ Azerrad, Michael (August 11, 1988). "Camper Van Beethoven: Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on November 16, 2002. Retrieved February 14, 2018.
  6. ^ Considine, J. D. (2004). "Camper Van Beethoven". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 132–133. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  7. ^ Wyman, Bill (1995). "Camper Van Beethoven". In Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig (eds.). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. pp. 71–72. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
  8. ^ Christgau, Robert (July 26, 1988). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. Retrieved February 14, 2018.
  9. ^ Fricke, David (19 May 1988). "Camper Van Beethoven's Notes from the Underground". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 8 November 2018.


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