Lifetime
Seven Inches [Reissue]
Black-Cat/Temperance
Lifetime released this themselves in 1994, and it has now resurfaced with different packaging and a couple bonus songs. It’s weird to be reviewing this now. I listened to this constantly when this came out and there’s a lot of nostalgia associated with this for me. Well, okay, I mostly listened to the first five songs, but I listened to them over and over again. These were the ones that were recorded in 1994, and are the ones that best realize Lifetime’s “intent of creating the perfect blend of melody and aggression.” The next five are from their first seven-inch, from 1990, and show a much less developed band.
Lifetime accentuated the hardcore in the emo style, playing their melodies fast and with great breaks. They had memorable, classic songs. This is how they sounded toward the beginning, before their records on Jade Tree. A bit more unpolished and raw, but the elements that made them stand out were in place even then. “Starsixtynine” and “Isae Aldy Beausoleil” in particular are as just as right on as any of their later songs.
Also included on here is their cover of Embrace’s “Money” from the Land of Greed, World of Need compilation, as well as a very good cover of Billy Bragg’s “A New England” that I haven’t heard elsewhere.
Black-Cat, 67 Mammoth Street, Red Bank, NJ 07701; Temperance Records, P.O. Box 566, Somers Point, NJ 08244, http://www.temperancerecords.com
