5 out of 5

Label: Spartan Records

Produced by:

Gathering up most of the band’s vinyl-only 7″ material, Japanese-release extras, and compilation-only tracks, The Y Section is a good shortcut to being a completist if / when hunting down the originals has proven difficult, but more importantly: it shows the growth of the group from punkers to emo-rockers to this sprawlingly unique blend of hard and soft qualities (lyrically, musically, tonally) across the relatively short few years of their first phase, from late 90s to early 00s. When isolated down to those original sources, with two songs per 7″, you get the absolute sparkle of experiencing these songs as singles – and they’re all singles – but miss the big picture. …Not to mention the admitted ease of hitting play on one record instead of shuffling between curios.

Sequenced chronologically by initial release, some swaps of A- and B-sides shows some consideration for how the songs fit together as an album. And I’d have to guess there are some other bits and bobs on comps out there; if not, though, I can’t underline how choice the whole set here is. I’ve come to love Shiner thanks to working backwards from The Life and Times, but I initially tossed them into a more derivative emo pile of Sunny Day / Jawbox fans and went about my day, and at a glance, some tracks from Egg or Starless play that out, as the group (and Epley, as a lyricist) filled out their identity. I was expecting some of that relative filler on The Y Section as well, but every time I hear a riff that sets me up for a “typical” slow-moving Shiner song, the bass line or beat drops in especially surprising way. I also think the sequencing comes back around to support that, as the songs start out more muscley and hardcore-adjacent before adding in some space with Floodwater and then expanding from there, concluding on what would seem like a logical endpoint for the group in general – a My Bloody Valentine cover – that again subverts my expectations by tightening it up and taming it to be a more melodic Shiner joint.

It can’t be a “best of” since these are all non-album tracks, but The Y Section certainly shows the band at their best, proving how consistent their sound has actually been throughout the years, and really dialing in on the depth they’ve been able to add to a genre that many of their peers at the time tended to lack, or allowed themselves to shift more clearly into emo or shoegaze while Shiner continued to define themselves in their own space.