Better Than Ezra: Kevin Griffin (vocals, guitar); Tom Drummond (bass); Travis Aaron McNabb (drums).

Additional personnel: Peter Holsapple (mandolin, piano, organ); Joan Wasser (violin); Anthony Dagrade (flute, clarinet, saxophone); Jamil Sharie (trumpet); Mark Mullins (trombone); Matthew Perrine (tuba); Lawrence Sieberth (piano).

Recorded at Kingsway Studio, New Orleans, Louisiana between March 25 and April 27, 1996.

All tracks have been digitally mastered using HDCD technology.

Personnel: Kevin Griffin (vocals, guitar); Peter Holsapple (mandolin, piano, organ); Joan Wasser (violin); Anthony Dagrade (flute, clarinet, saxophone); Jamil Sharie (trumpet); Mark Mullins (trombone); Mathew Perrine (tuba); Lawrence Sieberth (piano); Travis Aaron McNabb (drums).

Audio Mixer: Don Gehman.

Recording information: Kingsway Studio, New Orleans, LA (03/25/1996-04/27/1996).

Photographers: Frank Ockenfels; Jim De Barros; Kathy Stewart.

Unknown Contributor Role: Doug Trantow.

On their second album, Friction, Baby, Better Than Ezra becomes a bit more ambitious than they were with their debut album, Deluxe. Lead singer Kevin Griffin's lyrics are more detailed and brooding, moving the band closer to their doom-laden post-grunge contemporaries. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

On their second album, Friction, Baby, Better Than Ezra becomes a bit more ambitious than they were with their debut album, Deluxe. Lead singer Kevin Griffin's lyrics are more detailed and brooding, moving the band closer to its doom-laden post-grunge contemporaries. The problem is, Griffin doesn't have anything particularly original to say, nor does he have an original way to say it. Better Than Ezra were never particularly good with melody -- their breakthrough hit, "Good," was catchy because of a vocal tic, not a melodic phrase -- but Friction, Baby is almost completely devoid of hooks and melodies, which makes Griffin's gloomy lyrics even harder to stomach. In its favor, Better Than Ezra are developing a stronger, tighter group sound, but it's hard to ignore how thoroughly mediocre most of the music on this record actually is. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Better Than Ezra's second album contains the same vibrant brand of alternative rock that made the band's 1995 debut a commercial smash. The New Orleans band is clearly influenced by such melodic modern bands as the Cure and R.E.M., but Better Than Ezra loves to rock out as well; FRICTION, BABY relies heavily on grunge power chords. The band's lyrics, built around intense emotional associations with everything from backyard grass to a mix tape, imbue the band's scruffy guitar rock with pathos, and singer Kevin Griffin's fervent tenor relays a sense of uncertainty and vulnerability.

The band throws some curveballs with electronic drum beats, Dixieland-style instrumentation and funky, wah-wah guitar, but the end result is an album of songs that are pleasantly familiar without sounding played out. FRICTION, BABY is one of those albums you'll swear you've heard before but cannot place--like a pleasant dream, the events of which you cannot recall.

Rolling Stone (9/19/96, p.82) - 3 Stars - Good - "...Like Live, Better Than Ezra are essentially a hard-pop band....[they] owe more to the Beatles and the Byrds...than to indie rock. That melodic buoyancy makes [Kevin] Griffin's penchant for melodrama palatable and makes his best songs irresistibly endearing..."

Spin (9/96, pp.154-155) - 6 - Reasonably Good - "...Better Than Ezra come off here as experts in the anguished surge--you've almost got to admire Kevin Griffin's ambitiousness and conviction, not to mention his utter lack of awareness that anyone else has ever felt these things before."