Bakesale

Bakesale is the fifth album by American indie rock band, Sebadoh. It was released by Sub Pop in 1994.

Bakesale was the first Sebadoh album released following the departure of founding member, Eric Gaffney. The band remained a three piece with the addition of drummer Bob Fay, who joined other founding member, Lou Barlow, and Jason Loewenstein.

The album cover is a photograph of a one-year-old Lou Barlow, taken by his mother.

As a result of Gaffney’s departure, the 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 that characterized their first three albums, and boasts a more polished production value than previous Sebadoh albums. This helped the band not only expand its underground following but flirt with mainstream success, and several singles and even a few music videos were released from the album.

Critics cited Bakesale as the band’s most accessible album to date, with the strong songwriting of Barlow and Loewenstein benefiting from the more polished production.

The album was included in a number of year-end lists in 1994, including Spin’s “20 Best Albums of ‘94” (#16), the Village Voice’s “1994 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll” (#20), the NME’s “25 Best Albums of 1994” (#27), and Mojo’s “25 Best Albums of 1994” (unranked).