Album Reviews

The Vaselines won’t ring any bells with a lot of people… hell, people never even had a proper chance to discover this band who only released 2 EPs and one full-length in the late 80s! If you are a Nirvana fan though, you have heard already heard a couple of their songs. Kurt Cobain once called Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee his favorite songwriters in the whole world and not only covered three of their songs (“Molly’s Lips”, “Son Of A Gun” and “Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam”) but even named his daughter Frances Bean Cobain after Mckee.

The Vaselines broke up in 1989 shortly after the release of their full-length but reformed a bunch of times and are now playing a series of shows that coincide with the release of this discography. “Enter The Vaselines” was originally released back in 1992 but is now re-released in a deluxe edition. It comes with remastered versions of both EPs (“Son Of A Gun” and “Dying For It”) and their sole full-length (“Dum-Dum”) along with a bunch of demo takes and live performances.

Definitely worth hearing because while Cobain’s versions of their most well-known songs were faithful renditions, they don’t live up to the original versions by a band who fitted right in with The Pastels and Shop Assistants of the world.