One of my favourite slabs of vinyl gets some rotation time this afternoon. 

I usually don’t bother with remastered, re-purposed and re-marketed records that have an abundance of demos, b-sides and obscurities that you might listen to once. Quite often it’s a case of flogging a dead horse and it’s usually a cynical means of lining pockets. (and quite often not the artists pockets!)

This record is different. Yo La Tengo are different. Matador, their record company are different.

This is a stunning set of absolutely essential demos and versions of brilliant material. 

“Painful” is a masterpiece. This just takes it to another level. One of the bands I most want to see live.

Allmusic.com - Review