By – Jason Hamric

Fall was right around the corner. The days were warm, the nights cool, and there was no better place to be than driving down a moonlit county road in my 1985 Saab. All of the windows down, sunroof open, and the most amazing person in the world sitting next to me, waving her hand out the window in perfect rhythm with the stereo. It was the end of summer, and the beginning of a new life.

Jackie and I had eloped to Vegas on a very hot mid-August day, and when we returned, we holed up in her college rental with a few amazing roommates just a block or two away from the University of Montevallo. It’s a beautiful little liberal arts college about 45 minutes from the city. It’s the kind of place that just inspires you. The streets of the campus were all brick cobblestone, the buildings appeared to have been there for hundreds of years, and the leaves always fell around you everywhere you stepped. I definitely understood why Jackie wanted to go to school there originally, and I couldn’t have been happier to be there while she finished up her last semester. Since she was a music performance major, I spent my days shooting and peeling apart Polaroids and listening to music while she put in 6-8 hours of flute practice.

Less than a month later, we woke up to the terrible news —that morning was September 11th. We couldn’t quite comprehend how this could happen, but we were just so glad to have each other. We worked in a small restaurant in Birmingham, and at the end of each night, we made the 45-minute drive back to the safety of our little room in our little house and wondered what the future would hold. There was a handful of records that I had recorded to minidisc (yes, I was one of those guys): Elliott Smith’s *XO*, Sloan’s *One Chord to Another*, My Bloody Valentine’s *Loveless*, Belle and Sebastian’s *If You’re Feeling Sinister*, and The Ladybug Transistor’s *The Albemarle Sound*. These all seemed to be the perfect length for our drive and always seemed to fit the moment one way or another. The one I think of the most when I remember those drives is *The Albemarle Sound*. I was already a huge Elephant 6 fan, and The Ladybug Transistor were the NYC branch. I know people love to use the term “baroque pop,” and that may be apropos, but meh — for some reason, putting that label on it seems to make it sound gimmicky. *The Albemarle Sound* was TLT’s second full-length album. It was released in 1999 on one of my favorite labels, Merge. It’s really a perfect record, from its opening track “Oriental Boulevard,” my personal favorite “Meadowport Arch,” to the wonderful Jan and Dean cover “Like a Summer Rain,” all the way through to “Alidas’s Theme.” This record is perfectly at home on a deep listen or as background music while you’re enjoying the sounds of crickets after a long day. It feels new and old at the same time. Taking its cues from such greats as The Beach Boys and The Zombies’ *Odessey and Oracle*, there’s a genuine childlike innocence, teenage melancholia and slight psychedelia mixed together.

The expanded reissue vinyl is a real treat.  The deluxe version includes pins, prints, and extra musical goodies.  You can also get the regular reissue vinyl or the CD (which has the extra tracks also), OR my favorite option, the vinyl/CD combo. You can get yours now from Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records HERE. One of the bonus tracks is one of my favorite covers of ALL TIME! The Ladybug’s version of the Bee Gees’ “Massachusetts” is unstoppable. It’s on repeat in my headphones now. Filling out the extra goodies are piano-only versions, stripped-down takes and even what sounds like someone munching on an apple. But my favorites are probably the 4-track demos. I always enjoy listening to a band’s beginning.

Do yourself a favor: If you ever find yourself cruising though some country backroads, the weather’s just perfect. and you have the person of your dreams sitting next to you pop on The Albemarle Sound.

I’m not sure what makes this record have such staying power, but I do know it’s that time of the year again.