Our Lady Peace are one of the most successful Canadian rock bands of the last three decades. Releasing their debut album Naveed in 1994, the band went 4x Platinum in their home Country. Their success was even greater with the release of second album Clumsy in 1997, which remains their biggest-selling album to date achieving Diamond sales in Canada and Platinum in the US. The title track from the album was used in the hit horror film I Know What You Did Last Summer, starring Jennifer Love Hewitt and Sarah Michelle Gellar, giving the band exposure on a global level.
21 years after its original release, Clumsy has been re-issued on limited edition vinyl by Music on Vinyl. Limited to only 500 copies, the album has been released on white and black marbled 180-gram vinyl. Featuring the original artwork, the release comes with a double-sided insert featuring lyrics for all of the songs and imagery taken from the 1997 release inlay.
This new edition of Clumsy features all 11 songs from the original album release. Listening to the record again after all this time is a joyous and nostalgic experience. I remember first finding out about the band due to their inclusion on the I Know What You Did Last Summer soundtrack and obsessively playing Clumsy over and over. For me, it’s still the band’s finest song and it’s aged pretty well. Starting off a little like Oasis, the song goes in a variety of directions and it’s sonically one of Our Lady Peace’s most interesting recordings.
Clumsy really is like a time capsule of rock in the 90s and I don’t mean that in a bad way. The album is soundtrack ready with every song easily a potential single and engineered for commercial success. The album opens with the bombastic Superman’s Dead and it doesn’t really let up from that point. The fantastic Automatic Flowers follows and lead singer Raine Maida’s distinctive voice really comes into its own. He has a unique town that can move from melodic to raspy through to full-on throaty rock when needed.
Elsewhere on the album the band showcase their softer side on the gorgeous 4am, put the pedal to the metal on the raucous Hello Oskar, and get as close to an anthem as they can on the standout The Story of 100 Aisles. The album closes with the moody and atmospheric Car Crash, which sees Maida exploring his spine-tingling falsetto.
Once again Music on Vinyl have delivered something pretty special with this limited-edition release of Clumsy. It really is one of the standout rock albums of the 90s and it’s a real crime that Our Lady Peace never found wider international fame. Of its time the album may be, but listening to it takes me back to my younger years and the memories come flooding back. This stellar reissue is one for any 90s rock fan to get hold of and it sounds majestic on 180-gram vinyl.
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Track list: 1. Superman’s Dead 2. Automatic Flowers 3. Carnival 4. Big Dumb Rocket 5. 4am 6. Shaking 7. Clumsy 8. Hello Oskar 9. Let You Down 10. The Story of 100 Aisles 11. Car Crash Record label: Music on Vinyl Release date: 4th May 2018
