The Vaselines are back

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The Vaselines
V for Vaselines
Rosary Music

Talk about poor timing. Scottish duo the Vaselines split up in 1989, the week their debut album was released, so they weren’t around to take advantage when Kurt Cobain became a fan and recorded three of their songs with Nirvana. But things have been going more smoothly since 2008, when Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee got back together. On the rousing V for Vaselines, their second post-reunion outing, the rowdy twosome offers a fizzy update of classic male-female sparring matches in the grand tradition of Johnny Cash and June Carter, or John Doe and Exene Cervenka of X. Whether trading scruffy lead vocals or combining for bracing harmonies, Kelly and McKee make exuberant punk-pop that captures interpersonal strife with entertaining zest. Memorable snotty lyric of the week, from “Number One Crush”: “Being with you/Kills my IQ.”