If'n

Updated on Nov 23, 2024

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Released 1987 Artist Firehose Label SST Records Producers Ethan James, Mike Watt		If'n(1987) Fromohio(1989) Release date 1987 Genre Alternative rock

Recorded September–October 1987; Radio Tokyo, Venice, California Similar Flyin' the Flannel, Fromohio, Ragin' - Full On, Mr Machinery Operator, Big Bottom Pow Wow

If'n is the second album by the American alternative rock band Firehose, released in 1987.

The sound on the album is less incendiary than Ragin', Full On, moving away from the harder-edged Minutemen style to a mellower, funk-driven, humorous, "good-time rock'n'roll" direction (one which Minutemen had themselves explored on the EP Project Mersh). The songs are also more stylistically consistent - where the previous album had material from various sources (including Kira Roessler), If'n is more centered on Mike Watt's writing, showing a band that has gelled and found its own identity apart from Watt and Hurley's previous (and more well-known) band Minutemen. Many of the songs remained audience favorites for years to come ("Making the Freeway", "From One Cums One" and the humorous "Me & You, Remembering"). The album includes the group's first "heavy" song, "Thunder Child".

The album name is a reference to an episode of the television show Bewitched, which has a song called "If'n".

The left side of the album cover has a picture of Hüsker Dü, Minutemen's former colleagues at SST Records.