"The Freed Pig"

Sebadoh
(Homestead, 1991)

A pitiless autopsy of a dead friendship, caustic and honest, with music that paces obsessively around a single point the same way the words do, and a nagging lead-guitar line that's like salt in a deep wound. Lou Barlow's enunciation makes it clear that he's been turning this over in his head and is going to say it only once; the extra guitar that comes crashing in with his last word slams the door shut. This is the kind of kissoff that starts, "You were right," the kind so well crafted that its object, J Mascis, later produced the Breeders' cover of it.

-- Douglas Wolk