| Welcome | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Dharma Bums |
| Cover: | Welcome (Dharma Bums album).jpg |
| Released: | 1992 |
| Label: | Frontier |
| Producer: | Ed Brooks, Dharma Bums |
| Prev Title: | Bliss |
| Prev Year: | 1990 |
Welcome is an album by the American band Dharma Bums, released in 1992.[1] [2] Issued via Frontier Records, it was the band's final album.[3] [4] A video was shot for "The Light in You", the album's first single.[5] The band supported the album with European and North American tours.[6] [7] Welcome was a hit on college radio charts.
The album was produced by Ed Brooks and the band. Most of the songs are about romantic relationships; the band considered the sound to be similar to power pop.[8] Dharma Bums were also influenced by the heavier music of the early 1990s Northwestern scene.[9]
The Oregonian wrote: "Rough-hewn but melodic, their sound works the guitar-bass-drums basics with freshness and fervor."[5] The Arizona Daily Star deemed the songs "petulant, sweet, loose, jangly, folky."[10] The Los Angeles Times determined that Welcome "combines sharp pop tunefulness with the transparent innocence and energy of youth."[11] The Philadelphia Inquirer stated that Dharma Bums "make their sound from R.E.M.-style jingle-jangle crossed with a garage band's rugged edge."[12]
The Houston Chronicle noted that the band "combines pop hooks and post-punk grunge with the energy of misspent youth."[13] CD Review concluded that "Welcome finds the Bums just as up front and credible as ever, [reminiscent] of the Saints or the Hoodoo Gurus at those groups' very best."[14] The Missoula Independent praised the "cosmic, emotive, accessible, modern rock vein."[15] The Central New Jersey Home News opined that "melodies and solos are understated; there seems to be something dark simmering beneath."[16]
AllMusic wrote that "most of Welcome consists of intriguing slices of moody jangle pop and country-tinged alt-rock that are all the more refreshing for the fact that none of them particularly sound like R.E.M." LA Weekly included Welcome among the best albums of 1992.[17]