In a rather strange move, the second Mary Chain B-side collection, The Sound of Speed, wasn't released in America; instead a reshuffled, heavily trimmed and then expanded version surfaced, Hate Rock 'n' Roll. Most of the tracks are in fact new, which more than slightly begs the question why Sound of Speed just wasn't released as is -- then again, who expects sanity from most record companies? Of the new cuts, the brilliantly pissed-off title track is the winner, arguably the last great song from the band, an anti-love song to the industry and the culture, taking bloody aim at the likes of the BBC, MTV, and "all those people with nothing to show." William Reid delivers it with just the right bile, while the feedback pile-ups are among the fiercest the band had yet created, combined with a murderously low instrumental break and, but of course, a perfectly hummable melody. The remaining newer tracks are a mixed bag, many from the Stoned and Dethroned days and appropriately quiet (like the hilarious country pisstake "New York City") or else combining that with the more typical volume. A fair amount of the best tracks from Sound of Speed don't appear, which is what makes the collection so frustrating -- at only 37 minutes long, it could have been twice as long and still fit all on one disc. Some of the best from the earlier compilation do surface at least -- the sly Ronettes-quoting stomp and squall of "Snakedriver," the downright exultant "Something I Can't Have" -- but it's chump change considering what isn't available. Considering that a fairly unneeded mix of "Teenage Lust" did make the cut, the whole exercise seems like a pretty poor attempt on the behalf of American Recordings to satisfy the fans without actually figuring out what the fans wanted. -- Ned Raggett
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