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Various Artists
MAKING SINGLES, DRINKING DOUBLES
(BLOODSHOT)

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A decade ago, Chicago’s Bloodshot Records rose to the fore of a burgeoning alterna-country scene with a few gutsy compilation discs. But unlike its far-reaching 10th-anniversary package, which included appropriate artists from other labels’ rosters, or its recent inspired children’s album, which struck a fresh vein of bubbling crude, this singles collection suggests that maybe the label is returning to multiple-artist comps because it’s otherwise shot its load. Granted, seven-inch singles are mostly just fetish objects these days, as the Volebeats attest with a "Maggot Brain" cover memorable only for its sleeve art. Elsewhere, Making Singles, Drinking Doubles ranges from a startling original by Andre Williams to the Meat Purveyors’ embarrassing "Madonna Trilogy." Most perverse are Rex Hobart & the Misery Boys’ "Every Rose Has Its Thorn," which makes Poison’s original sound smart, and Ryan Adams’s two straightforward outtakes, which in this convoluted context make his ridiculous reputation seem deserved.

BY FRANKLIN SOULTS

Issue Date: January 9 - 16, 2003
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