Letters To Cleo – Wholesale Meats And Fish

Letters To Cleo
Wholesale Meats And Fish
(Highlighter Yellow Vinyl) 
Release: 1995
Re-Release: 2025

Track Listing:

1. Demon Rock
2. Fast Way
3. Jennifer
4. Awake
5. Laudanum
6. Acid Jed
7. Pizza Cutter
8. St. Peter
9. Little Rosa
10. Do What You Want, Yeah
11. He's Got An Answer
12. I Could Sleep (The Wuss Song)

More Info:
Letters to Cleo’s sophomore effort, Wholesale Meats and Fish, captures the Boston quintet at their sharpest, punchiest, and most aggressive. Recorded at Boston’s renowned Q Division Studios with producer Mike Denneen, the album avoids the sophomore slump by turning up the gain and leaning into raw, live-in-the-room energy. The dual-guitar interplay between Greg McKenna and Michael Eisenstein delivers a jagged wall of overdriven crunch, while the powerhouse rhythm section of bassist Scott Riebling and future American Hi-Fi founder Stacy Jones on drums keeps tempos brisk and propulsive. Frontwoman Kay Hanley anchors the entire record with her signature rapid-fire lyrical cadences, soaring effortlessly from sarcastic, sweet pop-punk melodies to throat-tearing grit on cuts like "Demon Rock," "Fast Way," and the lead alternative-radio single "Awake." Sharper, heavier, and far less polished than the mainstream radio sheen of their breakout hit "Here & Now," the album sounds like sweaty, mid-1990s club power-pop running on pure adrenaline and razor-sharp hooks.