Love Chant

Albums of the Year 2025: #14 After years of writing, wandering, and starting over, Evan Dando returns with Love Chant, the first Lemonheads studio album of original material in nearly two decades. Long in the works and shaped by shifting geographies and a cast of trusted collaborators, it’s a bold, melodic reaffirmation of one of alternative rock’s most distinctive voices. Now based in Brazil, where much of the album was recorded, Dando’s relocation in recent years has offered a quiet shift in perspective – a chance to reset, reconnect, and finally bring these songs into focus. The result is a record that sounds both fresh and familiar: rooted in the hallmarks of The Lemonheads’ best work, yet expanded by years of lived experience and new surroundings. Love Chant was produced by Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Apollo Nove; it draws together old friends and new allies. J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr), Juliana Hatfield, and Tom Morgan rejoin the fold, alongside producer Bryce Goggin (Pavement, Antony and the Johnsons), Nashville’s Erin Rae, John Strohm of the Blake Babies, and Nick Saloman of The Bevis Frond. Adam Green of cult New York favourites The Moldy Peaches also contributes as co-writer on the loose-limbed country detour “Wild Thing.” Over the past few years, The Lemonheads’ influence has only deepened. Artists like MJ Lenderman, Courtney Barnett, and Waxahatchee have all covered Dando’s songs, praising the emotional clarity, melodic instinct, and wry intimacy that define his writing. That resonance across generations makes Love Chant feel like more than a return – it’s a reminder of what made this band matter in the first place.