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A possibly misleading title is turned on its head when Useless turns out to come very close to living up to its presumptuous billing: 14 TV Smith favorites dating back to the Adverts and forward through his solo career come in for reappraisal, with TV joined across the album by German superstars Die Toten Hosen -- who treat every song with the same respect as they handled their original take on "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" a decade previous. (One new song, "Only One Flavour," completes the collection.) In a way, there are very few surprises on board. From "One Chord Wonders" to "Generation Y" via Cheap's "Ready for the Axe to Drop" (but nothing from the Explorers era -- shame!), Useless does represent what could be termed the best of Smith's vast canon. Likewise, though much of the material here is more familiar from its solo acoustic incarnation, Smith's delivery has always been fiery enough that the roar of electricity is scarcely missed. But the band still fills in around him, to create an album that both celebrates TV's past creations and stands as an entirely new work in its own right. ~ Dave Thompson
