If'n

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If'n
If'n cover
Studio album by Firehose
Released 1987
Genre Alternative rock
Professional reviews
Firehose chronology
Ragin', Full On
(1987)		 If'n
(1987)		 Fromohio
(1989)

If'n was the second album by Firehose, released in 1987.

The sound on the album is less incendiary than Ragin', Full On, moving away from the harder-edged Minutemen style to a mellower, funk-driven, humorous, "good-time rock'n'roll" direction (one the Minutemen had themselves explored on the EP Project Mersh). The songs are also more stylistically consistent - where the previous album featured material from various sources (including Kira Roessler), If'n is more centered around Mike Watt's writing, showing a band that has gelled and found its own identity apart from Watt and Hurley's previous (and more well-known) band the Minutemen. Many of the songs would remain crowd favorites for years to come ("Making the Freeway", "From One Cums One", and the humorous "Me & You, Remembering"). The album also features the group's first "heavy" song, "Thunder Child".

The album name is a reference to an episode of the television show Bewitched, which features a song called "If'n". From IMDB: Season 4, Episode 21: Hippie, Hippie, Hooray (Original Air Date: 1 February 1968). Serena has gone hippie and ends up on the front page of the newspaper and Darrin has to explain to the Tates about her identical cousin. After hurting Serena's feelings, Darrin can't provide proof of his story. Samantha also sings the "If'n" song, with lyrics "If'n if'n if'n - yeah yeah yeah!"

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Sometimes"
  2. "Hear Me"
  3. "Honey, Please"
  4. "Backroads"
  5. "From One Cums One"
  6. "Making the Freeway"
  7. "Anger"
  8. "For the Singer of R.E.M."
  9. "Operation Solitare"
  10. "Windmilling"
  11. "Me & You, Remembering"
  12. "In Memory of Elizabeth Cotton" (See Elizabeth Cotten)
  13. "Soon"
  14. "Thunder Child"

[edit] References