May 15, 1999
3x3
Hindsight is not kind to those who promise the earth, then fail to deliver more than a sprinkling of topsoil....
7 / 10
Hindsight is not kind to those who promise the earth, then fail to deliver more than a sprinkling of topsoil. Unsurprisingly, after spending the early-'90s shooting his mouth off with arch no-marks Adorable and getting precisely nowhere, Pete Fijalkowski's return finds him suitably chastised and in downbeat and reflective mode.
It might feature a few borrowed ideas, but it's still undeniably fine stuff. Because, as a one-time contemporary of Richard Ashcroft and Brett Anderson, most of this album shows an admirable ambition to transcend the manacles of the guitar ghetto.
It isn't always accomplished - this being a compilation of their first three EPs, it inevitably contains the odd moment of B-side fodder. But when it does succeed, as with the genius pop transience of '2 Minutes 45', totally self-contained as it counts down to its own demise, it's enough to make you forget the hollow boasts of the past.
Where once Fijalkowski wanted to change your life irrevocably, now he's merely intent on diverting it for slightly less than three minutes. Sights set to a more manageable target, second time around history should regard him more fondly.
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