Wholesale Meats and Fish by Letters To Cleo

Wholesale Meats and Fish was Letters to Cleo's second album, out in 1995 with "Awake" as the lead single, and it had a big act to follow: "Here & Now", from the Boston band's debut Aurora Gory Alice, had gone all the way to the top of the Modern Rock Tracks chart. Kay Hanley, Michael Eisenstein, Greg McKenna and Scott Riebling stayed close to what got them there, bright, buzzing guitar pop with Hanley's voice riding high.

The critics split. Trouser Press picked out "Little Rosa" as the gem, a burst of jangle-pop brilliance with a vintage glow. Entertainment Weekly found Hanley too petulant on the love songs, too close to Juliana Hatfield, and the New York Times shrugged that it was the same alt-rock in new wrapping, though it granted that her clear, bright singing lifts the band above the college-circuit pack, even if all that cheer can wear thin. Go! came next.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.