Scout - It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time (1999)

Scout's second album It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time features more well-written, melancholy pop songs and more yearning, smoky vocals from Ashen Keilyn. In the best possible way, this group sounds completely out of place in the late '90s. Instead, Scout finds kindred spirits in early and mid-'90s alternative groups like Madder Rose, Buffalo Tom, and Bettie Serveert, whose songs embraced emotion and catchiness as well as feedback and noisy guitars. Similarly, It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time explores bruised, bittersweet pop territory on songs like the sweetly confessional "All I Want Is You" and "State of Main," and throws in a heartfelt cover of the Replacements' "Unsatisfied" for good measure. Though most of the album continues along these lines, the band picks up the pace on "Always Waiting," and "Rumor" adds some spooky, surfy guitars to "There I Go Now" and finishes with two lyrical, folk-tinged songs, "Won't Ask Why" and "Clutch." Even if it tends toward sameness, It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time's shimmering, earnest pop is consistently appealing.