“Dude. I’ll show you the best album cover of all time. Just one second.” My friend walked over to a shelf in his living room and pulled out a frail looking jewel case. On the front of its insert was a stark, black and white photograph of a boy and girl hugging each other, hard. Lining the bottom were just two words: “ERIC S TRIP.” I had to agree with him. I still do.I’d never heard of the band before, but knew the Sonic Youth tune the name referenced. Sliding the album into the nearest player and listening to the opening hush of “Behind the Garage” for the first time, it was immediately apparent that this was one of those rare situations where you can judge a book by its cover. Love Tara sounds exactly the way that photo looks. It sounds like fragile or wild youth, or both simultaneously, depending on the song. It sounds like dim-lit bedrooms and small, gigantic moments, and heartache. And sometimes it just sounds really fucking fun, the same way being young is fun.Love Tara was a bit of an odd album for the time it came out, at the height of grunge in 1993. Although there were bands making similar sounding music, the overall attitude of popular alternative rock was represented by more of a fist-clenching sneer than a timid smile. Eric’s Trip was a group of four outsiders from Moncton, New Brunswick with a deep-seeded love for the blazing guitars of Dinosaur Jr. and the sensitive, low-key hum of Sebadoh. They were the first Canadian band signed by Sub Pop, and Love Tara was their self-recorded first full-length LP, although they’d released a slew of cassettes and seven-inch’s before it. They were a defining part of the era which dubbed Halifax “the new Seattle” due to the explosion of alternative music in Nova Scotia, despite not even being from there.Drummer Mark Gaudet summed up their sound as “dreamy punk,” and you don’t have to look any farther than “Spring” to hear what he means. A fast-strummed, fuzzed-out guitar battles with relentlessly pounded drums while a sweet melody drips over it all. “Secret for Julie” is a gently plodding haze dripping with melancholy, where Julie Doiron quietly but painfully explains, “it’s true that we were broken up / you could do anything and you did / but I know a little something / block it out of my head.” “Sunlight” has early Dinosaur Jr. vibes running all through it, showcasing quiet verses attempting to reign themselves in before exploding into massive walls of six-string noise. They all set the scene for the near-saccharine “Allergic to Love,” a pretty guy/girl ditty that sounds like you might’ve just wandered into the bedroom of a couple playing around with a song they just wrote. After disbanding in 1996, Eric’s Trip have gotten together a few times for old times’ sake, notably playing Sackville’s SappyFest a few times in the late aughts. Julie Doiron went on to become one of Canada’s most stunningly beautiful and understated voices, and singer and guitarist Rick White has produced records by artists such as The Sadies and Joel Plaskett. Love Tara, named by Canadian music writer Bob Mersereau as number 39 in his book The Top 100 Canadian Albums, remains a high watermark in Canadian music history, and a definitive piece of the nation’s East Coast scene.But the most succinct and striking way to explain Love Tara might be in a scene conjured by The Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie, a frequent collaborator with Doiron. He sings on “Put It Off,” the closing track of Trouble at the Henhouse: “I played Love Tara by Eric’s Trip on the day that you were born / I had to find the cuteness in the unadorned."Matt Williams is feeling a bit Sappy. He’s on Twitter @MattGeeWilliams