The Vaselines
Sex with an X - Sub Pop
FILTER Grade: 74%

With so much of today’s music echoing the past, it’s difficult to tell if The Vaselines are timeless or just outdated. Listening to Sex with an X is like entering a Technicolor time warp, and the Scottish pop outfit’s sophomore LP—20 years after the release of Dum-Dum—reminds us just how vintage the ’80s really are. Variety is not so much a priority for the band as is foot-tapping appeal: the hooks are catchy and the lines are even catchier, like the title track’s singable mantra, “It feels so good/It must be bad for me.” Yet as delectable as the melodies are, Sex with an X seems like it’s all been done before—and in fact, we know that it has. “I Hate the ’80s” lifts the album from its sugary-hook monotony, but ends it on a bittersweet thought: “You want the truth; this is it/I hate the ’80s ’cause the ’80s were shit.” The Vaselines might hate the ’80s, but that’s where they belong.