By Snilch

The Vaselines
Sex with an X
Sub Pop

Let’s start with this statement:  “There never would have been Nirvana without [insert band name here].”   It’s become a cliché; you could probably more easily name bands that don’t make this claim than those that do. It didn’t help that Kurt Cobain essentially liked every band ever (and wrote about it), so everyone wants a piece of that legacy.  (The correct answer, of course, is “Hϋsker Dϋ.”  It always is.)

In this case, The Vaselines have a legitimate claim.  Despite a two EP, one full-length album “career”  that started in 1987 and ended in 1989, Nirvana firmly established their cult status by not only getting this Scottish foursome open for them in 1990 (only 18 months after they broke up), but also by covering three of their songs (two on Insecticide, one on Unplugged).  So we can safely say they had a strong influence on Nirvana.  Take that, Black Sabbath! But I digress.

What The Vaselines had in spades (besides a strong Jesus and Mary Chain influence) was an almost sweet, teenage innocence pop sense, contrasted with charged sexual double and triple entendres, which they plugged into a variety of musical genre identities they slipped on and off from song to song – anywhere from folk to heavy 80’s “fetal grunge.”  To put it simply:  they had an easy-going 60’s folk sensibility that they like to screw with lyrically and musically.

Now they’ve put out their first album in twenty years with Sex with an X – an ironic title as frontmen (frontpeople?) Frances McKee and Eugene Kelly actually used to be a couple.  It’s a perfect sexual pun for these guys.  For their comeback they’ve brought some strong allies, most notably Belle and Sebastian’s Stevie Jackson and Bobbie Kildea on guitar and bass.

On Sex with an X, they retain their ‘60’s-style harmonies as well as that “innocent” quality (which is a bit of a surprise, to be honest) on songs like “Such a Fool” or “Turning It On.” In general, they do a very nice job of staying true to their sound without sounding either staid or flat; “I Hate the 80’s” is the clear single, and very clever.  The music is very fresh and the overall sound is interesting; they’re still folkies who like to occasionally play loud.

One word of caution for longtime fans: you’ll need to learn the lesson from albums that come after a long hiatus, like Pylon’s Chain (1991) or The Slits’ Trapped Animal (2009).  The band is at a different point in life than they were in their first go-around, and the sound (which is definitely less raw and more polished) reflects that.  That doesn’t make this album a disappointment, just a statement of where they are now; if you can get past that this is not 1989, you’ll find an album that fits nicely into their catalog.

Even though I am sick of the 80’s retro fad in music (which seems to have lasted for the better part of seven or eight years now), I can’t deny this album.  It’s great pop music.  A little more conservative, perhaps, but an altogether pleasing listen that makes me hope that they’ll give it a go at least one more time after this.

Release Date September 14, 2010

Track Listing

1. Ruined
2. Sex with an X
3. The Devil Inside Me
4. Such a Fool
5. Turning It On
6. Overweight But Over You
7. Poison Pen
8. I Hate the ‘80s
9. Mouth to Mouth
10. Whitechapel
11. My God’s Bigger Than Your God
12. Exit the Vaselines