The early '90s were rough for Tom Verlaine: Television's reunion album and tour were poorly received, and with grunge's rise, his seminal guitar work in Marquee Moon seemed on the verge of falling out of fashion. His aesthetic had little relevance to burgeoning trends, and his comeback attempts were doing little to bolster his reputation. This 1992 album of instrumentals barely registered with anyone; to this day, it's little more than a trifling curio in Verlaine's discography, neither notoriously terrible nor criminally overlooked.

Thrill Jockey's reissue treatment fails to make a compelling case for Warm and Cool's merits. The eight bonus tracks it adds are negligible outtakes, and the original material hasn't exactly grown richer with age. Part of the album's problem is a cosmetic matter: Verlaine's guitar receives gaudy Heroic Ax-Slinger treatment, glistening like an Alex Lifeson double-neck. In "Sleepwalkin'", for instance, a cheddary guitar tone negates an excellent hulking bass line. It would be easier to forgive Verlaine for giving the album a Guitar World polish if he delivered the proverbial goods; instead, he retreats from the articulate onslaughts of Television's heyday into more subdued territory. "Saucer Crash" is an exercise in restraint, hinting at rock prowess with washes of Floydian psychedelia but ultimately maintaining discipline, emphasizing texture and delicate tensions. "Those Harbor Lights" seems fit for a smoky jazz club, with shuffling drumbeats providing the necessary ambiance. Verlaine cued us to his soft rock proclivities as early as "Guiding Light", so his drift toward more "polite" material isn't entirely inappropriate -- but when these ruminations are given the sheen of arena-packing two-hand tapping, we're left with an incongruous, forgettable album.