1985

Lady luck bestowed a righteous thrashing upon Chicago rockers in the early '90s, and by 1994 the once promising, ever-critically acclaimed band was quite literally down on its knees. Penniless and mired in escalating drug abuse, the band's heart and soul, songwriters and were in a real bind and resorted to desperate measures by releasing their first demos from 1985 as the next album. A quick remix and repackaging would have been enough for most bands, but prolific songwriters that they were, recorded an entirely new batch of songs for what eventually became their eponymous 1989 debut. Lucky for them, as the old demo tapes sure came in handy a decade later when the band so desperately needed some pocket change. After opening in surprising fashion with the chestnut the band quickly establishes their power pop sound, blatantly quoting their creative rabbis with next track From here on out, hard-edged rockers like (reminiscent of 's black-hearted ) are interspersed with pluckier, power pop numbers like (think 's sugary studio version of ). Not bad for a demo, but despite delivering the usual excellent hooks, still amounts to one of less rewarding offerings. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia