Album Review by Mark Bayross
At least My Vitriol are not afraid to admit where they’ve set their sights. Having enlisted Steve Thompson, producer of Korn, Henry Rollins and Guns N’ Roses, to remix and remaster their debut album FINELINES for the American market, they have now released it in the UK alongside BEHIND THE LINES, a collection of B-sides, rarities and new tracks.
While it’s nice to hear the US version of FINELINES (with exactly the same running order), the changes are merely cosmetic – the guitars whoosh and chime a bit more, but it’s really just icing on an already epic-sounding cake.
The enhanced CD is a nice addition, though – pop it in your computer and you can read the lyrics while each track plays or watch an accompanying collage of images. What’s more, they’ve included the videos for PIECES and ALWAYS: YOUR WAY, although the absence of GROUNDED is a bit of a shame seeing as they had shelled out for Vincent Gallo’s acting services.
But for UK audiences, the main event will be BEHIND THE LINES, 50 minutes of gloriously new My Vitriol material (unless of course you’ve bought all their singles). With everything from muscular guitar workouts (DEADLINES, STATIC) to plaintive ballads (WINDOWS & WALLS, ALL OF ME), it shows that My Vitriol really have been hiding some killer material on the flipside of their singles.
New single MOODSWINGS is also here, as is the limited fan-only 7” VAPOUR TRAILS, covers of Madonna’s OH FATHER and Guided By Voices’ GAME OF PRICKS, and live versions of BREAKFAST and an acoustic ALWAYS: YOUR WAY.
This double album is an example of razor-sharp marketing from Infectious Records – die-hard My Vitriol fans will have most of BEHIND THE LINES already, but will want to get their hands on the US version of FINELINES, while for casual fans, this is an opportunity to own the B-sides and rarities and pick up the album into the deal.
In any case, there’s some great music on offer here, and at single album price, there’s every reason to pick it up.
