It’s Dad Rock Tuesday once again, and for some reason, I’ve been assigned a BoDeans album that doesn’t have “Closer to Free” on it. While I can’t say that this upsets me—I’ve never really liked that song—it is not what I was expecting.
Having only heard that chart-topper, I can’t say that my hopes were very high going into Love & Hope & Sex & Dreams. I was pleasantly surprised, though. It’s still clearly the same band, but you can tell that they weren’t just trying to put radio-ready hits together on this album. The charming-Midwestern-twang-thing is definitely evident, but perhaps it wasn’t going in full force on this record. That’s one of the things I can’t stand about “Closer to Free” . . . those vocals.
Something else I wasn’t expecting: a coherent and connected album. I know for a fact that the first two songs (“She’s a Runaway” and “Fadeaway”) are related, and it wouldn’t surprise me if there are more tracks that rely on each other in order to make sense. I had to stop looking out for those things because I have to write this, but, chances are, there’s a little love story within this record, as implied in the title.
So maybe BoDeans, believe it or not, is a band that I need to look into further. I never thought I’d be saying that, but I love being wrong about good music. With eleven solid, infectious, and actually interesting standard rock songs, there’s nothing not to like about Love & Hope & Sex & Dreams.
Swole Ear 
Only song to have both provided the title for a DRT album and garnered significant airplay while using the word “schmata’.
Furthermore, I believe, the only DRT album to feature a song later covered by country music great Ricky Van Shelton: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFunXUxiVyo. I prefer the original, but it makes a fine country song.
My guess is that Swoledini’s dad, who sounds like a great guy, got into the Bodeans long before Closer to Free became a popular television theme song. For my money, this is the best Bodeans’ album.