Laboratory of Sound is an album by the American band the Fleshtones, released in 1995.[1][2] They supported it with a North American tour.[3] The album sold around 20,000 copies in its first decade of release.[4]
Production
Recorded over two weeks in May 1995, the album was produced by Steve Albini.[5][6] "High on Drugs" was first recorded by guitarist Keith Streng's band with Peter Buck, Full Time Men.[7] The band, for the first time, wrote about their experiences, with "We'll Never Forget" a tribute to the music scene that had sustained the Fleshtones for almost 20 years.[8][9] An unlisted 69th track, "I Don't Live Today", is a cover of the Jimi Hendrix Experience song.[10]
The Advocate called the Fleshtones "the B-movie version of the Ramones."[16]Stereo Review praised the "loud, funny, kinetic set of Sixties-styled garage rockers", but criticized Albini's production, saying that "doubtless he had some rigorous alterna-rock theoretical reason for why the sound lacks conspicuous oomph."[17]The Age deemed it "a good, straight up rock 'n' roll album, sticking to the same old garage/soul/swamp".[11] The Telegraph & Argus opined that "the tunes simply aren't there" to support the "low-fi type of sound".[18]
The Trouser Press Guide to '90s Rock concluded that "the monochromatic rock performances of constricted melodies leaves Laboratory—the casualty of inadequate preparation and overly casual execution—a disappointing write-off."[19]
