Spy Versus Spy

British post-hardcore act Spy Versus Spy didn't last long, releasing an EP, an album, and a handful of compilation tracks between 1998 and 2000 before breaking up with its members scattering to various other minor indie bands. Seven years later, the two-CD compilation Spy Versus Spy is a complete overview, with everything the band ever released plus a single previously unreleased song, here simply called "Demo." Spy Versus Spy is handy for completist fans of obscure first-generation emo, but at 19 lengthy songs spread across two discs, the material becomes deadening after a while. This is not least because Spy Versus Spy were a fairly ordinary gloss on the style, using ideas already thoroughly explored by the likes of Joan of Arc and Sunny Day Real Estate and regularly extending songs past the six- to seven-minute range that would have been better off at four or under. Similarly, the two mono-named singers, Martyn and Ben, do exactly the same grunty vocals on the verses/clean vocals on the choruses split that so quickly became a post-hardcore cliche. Merely undistinguished instead of actively bad, Spy Versus Spy is mostly of interest to serious emo trainspotters. ~ Stewart Mason|