Never Meant To Be, by Love Child

Never Meant To Be

by Love Child

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
gatefold sleeve, includes two inserts and a redundant download code.

Mastered at Peerless Mastering.. Pressed at Smashed Plastic, Chicago IL

Includes unlimited streaming of Never Meant To Be via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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$35 USD or more
Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$16 USD or more

1.	Asking For It 01:58	buy track
2.	Know It's Alright 02:18	buy track
3.	He's So Sensitive 01:34	buy track
4.	Diane 01:39	buy track
5.	Cigarette Ash 02:21	buy track
6.	Sofa 01:30	buy track
7.	Crocus Says 03:20	buy track
8.	Slow Me Down 04:04	buy track
9.	Fortune Cookie 02:56	buy track
10.	Nice Toes 01:39	buy track
11.	Escalator 01:29	buy track
12.	Willpower 02:05	buy track
13.	Company 02:27	buy track
14.	Church Of Satan 01:08	buy track
15.	Chris Told Missy 02:04	buy track
16.	Obsessive Compulsive 04:11	buy track
17.	AAA/XXX 02:27	buy track
18.	Sleepyhead 02:13	buy track
19.	Something Cruel 02:19	buy track
20.	Wait And See 03:07	buy track
21.	Stumbling Block 05:30	buy track
22.	Permission 02:17	buy track
23.	Six Of One 05:05	buy track
24.	Erotomania 03:01	buy track
25.	Greedy 03:08	buy track
26.	All Is Loneliness 08:16	buy track

about

At the very dawn of the 90s, Love Child's debut 7” made a splash on the burgeoning scene of shambolic bands and lo-fi recordings. Back then, they were mentioned in the same breath as Pavement, Sebadoh, or Beat Happening. But Love Child’s two great albums and sparkling singles have become the stuff of record collectors, unavailable vis streaming and out of print, until now. Never Meant to Be: 1988-1993 pulls from these releases and some unreleased radio sessions, unearthing a trove of lost gems by a band that could be the bestof all of the 90s buried treasures.

Culled from their smashing debut 7-inch, their two full-length albums, another great single and some unreleased radio sets (including a Peel Session), ‘Never Meant To Be’ has catchy hooks, gritty noise, sneakily-deft playing, brainy but blunt lyrics, and lots of other awesome stuff. Love Child were part of lo-fi’s beginnings, but also had the NYC pedigree to absorb predecessors like the Velvet Underground, the Voidoids and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. (Their swirl of brightness, brains, and brawn led Byron Coley to liken them to a fantasy VU made up of Moe Tucker, Doug Yule, and Angus MacLise).

Will Baum started Love Child while a student at Vassar College, bringing on classmates Rebecca Odes and Alan Licht. At first, Baum wrote the majority of the songs, bringing a Modern Lovers-like garage-pop attack to the band’s 19-song whirlwind debut album Okay? (Homestead, 1991) But Odes and Licht contributed songs as well, each with a distinct sonic fingerprint (One fan, Kurt Cobain, allegedly predicted Love Child would become the Fleetwood Mac of the 90's).

All three members were happy to trade roles and instruments from song to song, but they also had some specific chops. Licht was a bit of a guitar prodigy, having taught himself how to tap like Eddie Van Halen, but versed enough in punk to know simplicity could be just as powerful. Odes’ bellowing bass was equally prominent, and her vocals could veer quickly from sweet to snarling, like Kim Deal or Georgia Hubley with a jagged edge. Take “Asking for It” (taken here from a 1992 Peel Session), whose righteous slam makes it a proto-riot-grrrl anthem.

Not long after Okay?, Baum left, replaced by drummer Brendan O’Malley. Love Child’s sound evolved too, toward a dronier zone not far from the bubbling haze of then-nascent shoegazers like My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive. On their next album Witchcraft (Homestead, 1992), smart hooks stretched into deeper ruminations, without any loss of brashness. “Stumbling Block” turned a riff into a minimalist mantra, while “Wait and See” took two melodies–one sung by Licht, one by Odes–and weaved them into the band’s most hypnotic moment on record.

Love Child didn’t last long past 'Witchcraft', though it's not 100% sure that they're fully done (Alan and Rebecca have been rumored to be playing together again). But until that comeback emerges, 'Never Meant To Be' should satisfy fans and newcomers for a long time.
- Marc Masters

credits

released March 8, 2024

tracks 1 and 25 recorded for The John Peel Show, BBC
12/21/92
tracks 2-5, 9-21 from 'Okay' (Homestead, 1991)
tracks 6 & 7 originally released as a 7" (Trash Flow, 1990)
tracks 16, 17, 19-21 from 'Witchcraft' (Homestead, 1992)
Tracks 22 & 26 recorded for broadcast on KSPC, 1993
tracks 18 and 23 originally released as a 7" (Homestead, 1991)
track 24 from 'This Is Art', 2X7" compl (Radiation Records, 1993)

Love Child :
Will Baum
Alan Licht
Rebecca Odes
Brendan O'Malley

Remastered at Peerless Mastering, 2023

P&C 2024 Love Child under license to 12XU

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Love Child New York, New York

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