Artist: The Junior Varsity
Album: The Great Compromise CD+DVD
Label: Victory Records
Tracks: 20
Length: 66 minutes
Reviewed by: Christopher Thomas!

Sometimes re-releasing older material is a good idea, sometimes it's not. For Tooth & Nail’s twothirtyeight, re-releasing Regulate the Chemicals made a terrific record available to a wider audience than it had previously known. For Green Day, re-releasing their first records on the Lookout! Records label is motivated in large part by money – not a bad idea if that’s what they’re going for. There are anniversary releases (Weezer’s blue album), remixes and mash-ups (Linkin Park), and many other occasions for the re-release of an album or back catalog.

In the case of the Junior Varsity, the re-release of The Great Compromise is a two-edged sword. The record is now accessible by many more fans that it had in its initial release on British Records, and it’s a record that presents a promising young band with great things on the horizon and a solid foundation on which to build.

The other edge of the blade, and the one that cuts more deeply is that this record is better than their Victory Records debut. The energy and passion that Wide-Eyed lacked is found on its predecessor, although it is rougher and less mature musically than their 2005 outing. So the question lingers: was this re-release a good idea? Ultimately, yes.

The disc still demonstrates what this band is capable of: catchy songs, interesting arrangements, and appropriately emotional delivery in the vein of Mock Orange, Hey Mercedes, and other melodic and cerebral inde bands. They are still today the same band that they were when this record was released three years ago, and this provides hope that their next record will be able to recapture what was missing on Wide-Eyed. Personal anecdotes about each song, stories about the history of the band, 9 additional tracks, improved artwork, and a bonus DVD with live and miscellaneous footage make this re-release worthwhile for fans of the Junior Varsity.