Rolling Stone - 3.5 Stars - Excellent
CMJ (1/5/04, p.22) - Ranked #2 in CMJ's "Top 20 Most-Played Albums of 1988"
Camper Van Beethoven: David Lowery (vocals, guitar); Greg Lisher (guitar); Jonathan Segel (guitar, mandolin, citern, piano, keyboards); Victor Krummenacher (bass); Chris Pedersen (drums).
Additional personnel: C. "Dixie" Kupps (harmonica, bells, programming); Hammer Smith (harmonica); Dave Costanza (trumpet); Katl B. Traler (trombone); Davey Faragher (programming, background vocals).
Engineers: John Beverly Jones, Dennis Herring.
After a couple albums and EPs on independent labels, Camper Van Beethoven made the step up to the majors with 1988's OUR BELOVED REVOLUTIONARY SWEETHEART. With their judicious mix of electric and acoustic instruments, the songs are uniformly rich and warm. This album introduced some of their finest songs, including "Eye Of Fatima," "She Divines Water," and "My Path Belated." Their half-glimpsed lyrics employ oblique poetics and humor in equal measure, adding up to a winning mix of inviting sadness and gritty hope. David Lowery's everyman-style voice is the perfect tourist in their land of semi-exotic settings--far eastern colors hop into the backseat of a rock & roll jalopy and motor around eastern Europe. This a fine and punchy quintet, unobtrusively produced and a joy to play loud. Victor Krummenacher's bass playing is solidly inventive throughout, and Jonathan Segel's violin is the icing on the cake.