Enter the Vaselines (Deluxe Edition)

iTunes Review

Many great pop bands have come from Glascow, Scotland, and one of the earliest was the Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee partnership, The Vaselines. Together they purveyed charmingly raw, shambling, indie rock inspired by the likes of the Velvet Underground and their Glaswegian percursors, the (also great) Pastels. In 1992, Sub Pop Records issued the band’s first stateside release, The Way of the Vaselines. For many, this compilation of their woefully small catalog — two EPs (Son of a Gun and Dying For It) and a lone LP (Dum Dum) — was a bittersweet send-off to the group, and the expectation of anything new was but a dream. This 2009 reissue of The Way Of, repackaged and renamed, does contain some “new” material that diehard fans will be thrilled to hear, comprised of unheard demos and earnest, if uneven, live tracks. As on the original release, tracks 1 - 7 are from the two EPs, and the remaining studio tracks are from Dum Dum, where the duo beefed up their sound with a full band. The rest is ... well, the rest is simply superb frosting on a well loved treat.