Self-produced 2001 album by
Semisonic. The cover art and booklet make it look something like a
concept album, with
molecular diagrams, and chemical apparatus; and I guess it is a concept album, about the chemistry between men and women. Or rather, lack of chemistry.
Widely lauded as an almost perfect guitar-pop album, All About Chemistry includea a co-written duet between Dan Wilson and Carole King, One True Love.
Track listing:
- Chemistry
- Bed
- Act Naturally
- She's Got My Number
- Follow
- Sunshine and Chocolate
- Who's Stopping You?
- I Wish
- One True Love
- Get a Grip
- Girlfriend(Bonus Track)
- Ordinary Life(Bonus Track)
- Surprise
- El Matador
My opinions...
I like this album a lot. The music is catchy, and kind of quirky (sort of like Weezer), and the lyrics are intelligent, and unexpected at times (e.g. track 2, Bed; who else in modern rock/pop would sing about "bedding" a woman when they can use a cruder word instead?). I love the cover art and booklet, and the whole "chemistry" concept; but that's mainly because I studied Science in college. It can get a bit over-sentimental in places, but the music is always great.
My copy is a special edition...the difference is that the two glass flasks on the cover are filled with pink fluid instead of the original blue, and there are two bonus tracks (Girlfriend and Ordinary Life) - which are, strangely enough, tracks 11 and 12...bonus tracks are usually added on to the end of an album. Anyway. I think this "Special Edition" is a European release, as I've noticed
MCA/
Universal tend to release "Special Edition" versions of their albums marked as "Europe Only". Examples of this include "
Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea" by
PJ Harvey, and Weezer's
The Green Album.