Usual practice with rarities albums demands that someone cares in the first place. So there's no excuse - except an impending tilt at America - for this buffed, stadium-indie US remix of My Vitriol's debut album. But if 'Fine Lines' was originally accomplished but joyless, that applies ten-fold to the accompanying CD of unreleased tracks that supposedly justifies a British re-release.
Which means an acoustic stumble emasculates 'Always: Your Way', there are lacklustre covers of Madonna and Guided By Voices songs, while new single 'Moodswings' is comparatively interesting, simply because it doesn't sound scraped off My Vitriol's studio floor. No - rather it sounds like it was nabbed from Placebo's. Back when we weren't spoilt for guitar bands, My Vitriol were considered a serious prospect. How times have changed.
Jim Alexander
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