Fugazi - Repeater - 1990

There are many critics who label this a simple "repeat," as it were, of the musical ideas expressed on the first two EPs, but I have to wholeheartedly disagree. It may be stylistically similar, but almost all of these tunes take the signature sound to its logical extreme; in other words, there are no "Waiting Room" rip-offs on here. Instead, they fiddle with novel guitar sounds (the eerie cyclical feedback whine of the title track, the string scraping melody of "Styrofoam," the bouncy ticky floppydop of "Merchandise"), further explore the dark "Promises" vibe in monstrously soulful ballads like "Turnover," "Blueprint," and "Shut The Door," and drag up the old hardcore vibe with some crazily aggressive axe grindin' (although, truthfully, the guitars may very well have been this intense on the first couple of records; they just weren't around quite as often - I didn't mean to make it sound like Fugazi aren't a guitar-based band. They DEFINITELY are. They just don't feel the need to fill every single solitary nook and cranny with distorted scrazzledazz the way that punk rockers do.).

So essentially, I consider this to be a great Fugazi recording because it capitalizes on the tuneful qualities of the basic rock and roll feel while allowing enough experimentation to avoid deserving its rather cruel title. I honestly don't feel that this is a retread at all, and it never gets boring even for a second. Plus, the CD version has three great bonus tracks!