Sound As Ever represents a sound You Am I would never sound like again. Just before its 1993 release, drummer Mark Tunaley was unceremoniously fired over the phone—ostensibly because he wanted to play heavier music while founding member and lead singer Tim Rogers and bassist Andy Kent saw a poppier future in You Am I’s cards. This fundamental difference of creative opinion means that Sound As Ever embraces and rejects a post-In Utero world—sometimes within the same song. “Rosedale” is the best example of this compelling but uneasy compromise, threatening to descend into dissonance before it’s pulled back into the light of what can only be a Rogers-brand chorus jaunt. It’s a fine line. You Am I’s debut can’t decide whether it wants to swagger up against the bar or smash things over its head. Unhinged opener “Coprolalia” even explodes into a thunderous double-kick passage at 2:20 that, with respect to the band’s current standing as power pop wunderkinds, now seems unthinkable. It’s a dichotomy that made Sound As Ever too indecisive for classic status despite the fact that Rogers’ position as chief songwriter shone through with enough dominance to manage a few classics: second single “Berlin Chair”’s beloved allegory of toxic codependency and the diplomatically canny “Jaimme’s Got a Gal”—which serves as Rogers’ ringing take on why his brother (and founding drummer) Jaimme Rogers left the band.