Gandharvas - A Soap Bubble And Inertia (1994)

The Gandharvas burst onto the Canadian alternative rock scene in 1994 with their debut, A Soap Bubble and Inertia, largely on the strength of the first track, "The First Day of Spring." Opening as a languid, dreamy pop song, it soon builds to an explosive rock crescendo, with vocals (by Paul Jago) bearing a striking similarity to Perry Farrell's work with Jane's Addiction and Porno for Pyros. The song became a massive Canadian hit for the band. Unfortunately, its impact also manages to overshadow (and set an impossibly high standard for) the rest of the disc. While there are other solid tracks on A Soap Bubble and Inertia (including the light, bouncy pop of "The Coffee Song" and the dark menacing rock of "Bundle"), nothing else on A Soap Bubble and Inertia manages to scale the same heights as "The First Day of Spring."