Bakesale

Music

With Gaffney's departure, songwriting on Bakesale was handled primarily by Barlow and Loewenstein, with Fay contributing the lone track "Temptation Tide". The album continues the band's departure from the largely acoustic, lo-fi sound and shorter song structures of their first three albums, boasting more polished production. This helped the band expand its underground following and flirt with mainstream success, yielding several singles and music videos.

Reception

Bakesale was initially well received by critics and appeared on several 1994 year-end lists, including Spin's "20 Best Albums of '94" at number 16, the Village Voice's "1994 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll" at number 20, and NME's "25 Best Albums of 1994" at number 27. In the years since, it has come to be regarded as Sebadoh's most accessible album, with consistent songwriting from Barlow and Loewenstein. Upon its 2011 re-release, Jess Harvell of Pitchfork called it "their most focused and purely pleasurable record" and "a strong and lovable essay on 90s indie's charms."

Zachary Houle of PopMatters described it as "a totemic touchstone of a record, one that is arguably as important to the development of indie-rock as a form as Guided by Voices' Bee Thousand and Pavement's Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain." In 2014, John Everhart of Stereogum wrote that the album "doesn't have the highs of Bubble & Scrape, nor the epochal status of Sebadoh III, but Bakesale is the [Sebadoh] record you'll find yourself captivated by most immediately."

Barlow himself wrote that Bakesale seems to be "the most fondly remembered and the most highly regarded" Sebadoh album, though he does not consider it the band's best. In July 2008, Pitchfork listed it as one of the publication's 20 favorite Sub Pop albums. In July 2014, Guitar World placed it at number 37 in their "Superunknown: 50 Iconic Albums That Defined 1994" list.

Singles

The album's first single, "Rebound," came out in 1994 on a 7-inch vinyl in the UK. A second single, "Skull," followed in 1994, issued as a 7-inch in the US and a CD in the UK; the US version included a remix of the title track.

Two more CD singles appeared: "Careful" in Germany on City Slang, and "Magnet's Coil" in Australia on Shock. The final single, "Not Too Amused," was released in 1995 as a CD and 7-inch in the UK by Domino. Sub Pop put out a "Rebound" EP in 1995, with different B-sides and new cover art.

Did You Know?

• Initial recording sessions were done at Steve Albini's home in Chicago with Bob Weston, though the band did not work with Albini.
• For the reissue, the can of Comet originally sitting on the toilet tank was airbrushed out of the cover.
• The back cover features Bob Fay in his childhood, along with his two brothers.