3 out of 5

Label: Touch and Go

Produced by: Ted Niceley

Coming from the Cruise Yourself era of loungey slink, GVSB’s Sexy Sam / I’m From France single mostly just repeats the formula from that album of sultry snark and cynicism, both tracks’ simple lines twisted by vocalist Scott McCloud’s tendency to bounce between offhand nonsense and sudden darkness. The A-side is the heavier of the two, with an intriguingly poppy bassline offsetting its crunch; I’m From France is off the more laid-back variety, before it, too, picks up in its latter half.

Sounding somewhat familiar, these are songs that would be great additions as in-between tracks on albums – they could have mixed in at various points on Cruise, or even House of GVSB – but are maybe less essential on their own. The CD version of this adds in cuts from other releases, though, which makes the whole thing more scattered – it doesn’t really flow well as an EP – but also rather interesting, as it pairs somewhat similar loud / quiet tracks from other eras (songs from early Adult Swim releases; stuff from Venus Luxure and Cruise), which makes the aforementioned familiarity of the new songs a more self-aware affect, which is a rather fitting mode for GVSB.