Artist bio

Letters To Cleo burst into one-hit-wonderdom when the tongue-twister-chorused "Here And Now" plopped off the "Melrose Place" soundtrack and onto MTV. The song was taken from the Boston quintet's de jure debut Aurora Gory Alice and actually did give a valid impression of the group's sound: uptempo power pop with flair and the distinctive cracked-honey vocals of Kay Hanley.

The group went on to release two more full albums in its short career: Wholesale Meats And Fish, which took on more of a guitar-heavy, acid-tinged sound than its predecessor, and Go!, which (though recorded without skinsman Stacy Jones, who left to try his hand in Veruca Salt) re-energized the group's sound.

Sister followed in 1998, collecting some covers and early versions of previously released songs alongside a handful of originals, but the group was losing steam. Hanley married guitarist Michael Eisenstein and soon began work on a solo album, to be released in 2002. And the music lived on happily ever after.

Albums by this artist

Go! (1997)

Wholesale Meats And Fish (1995)

Aurora Gory Alice (1993)

Letters To Cleo

Go!

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» TROY CARPENTER | CO-DIRECTOR

Letters To Cleo Go! Revolution, 1997 RiYL: Aimee Mann, Lemonheads, Mysteries of Life, Belly

Pop, anyone?

While modern rock continued to devolve into rehashed grunge candy, Boston quintet Letters To Cleo released its third album, Go!, filled with enough sweet, catchy gems to make Evan Dando run and hide.

After the "Melrose Place" soundtrack highlighted Cleo's song "Here And Now" three years prior to the release of Go!, the country forgot about the band through the release of an average second album and the loss of drummer Stacy Jones to Veruca Salt.

But somehow, Go! is a fresh-sounding set of tunes. Instead of fading into generic power-pop, LTC's simple songwriting ends up sounding like the blueprint that everybody else is copying.

Crooner Kay Hanley's youthful, at-the-verge-of-cracking voice ventures farther on Go! than previously heard work. Her soaring choruses, well-placed background harmonies and vocal melodies just a half-step ahead of the listener give the songs great personality.

This is the kind of album that you'll slap on while getting dressed in the morning and have two of the songs stuck in your head the rest of the day. They'll keep you moving too, because Scott Riebling's up-tempo bass lines infuse the album with an energy reflective of its title.

Though Hanley's lyrics aren't the stuff of Nobel Laureates, they're appropriate enough for the album's mood. "Everybody's tryin' to bring me down - I don't pay attention" she quips in "Co-Pilot."

Go! is an optimistic effort from a band that sounds like its on its way up in the rock world. So if modern rock is gettin' you down and you yearn for the catchy gems of yesteryear, pop in Go!. It'll give you faith in simplicity and the energy to get through the day.

TROY CARPENTER | Troy Carpenter founded NATN from a Chicago apartment during the ambitious winter of 1998 with co-conspirators Ben French and Jonathan Cohen. After a five-year stint in New York, he and wife Lourdes have recently relocated to Indianapolis, where he spends days listening to music and nights in the kitchen at Elements restaurant. Musical heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Super Furry Animals. What else makes life worth living: Sushi, Phucty, runs in the park, and the Atlanta Braves.