The liner notes tend to reference The Slits and The
Raincoats a lot, but the styles are as diverse as can be—there’s Northern Soul,
mod rock, garage rock, hard rock, psychedelia, reggae, jazz, punk, disco, folk, even big
band (check out The Twinsets and The Shillelagh Sisters!)—but almost all of it
sounds like it belongs on the same two discs because the synths, uniformly
thick accents, and sparse arrangements brew the various tunes in the
distinctively flavorful waters of early-eighties British indie pop.
The first disc is 100% filler-free, with Grab Grab the
Haddock’s trippy “Nothing You Say…”, The Flatbackers’ slashing “Buzzz Going
Round”, and The GTs’ deliriously catchy “Boys Have Feelings Too” all deserving
to be singled out. Disc Two is less consistently spectacular, dominated by an
odd split between more mainstream pop pieces that sound too polished for this
collection (Tracie’s “The Boy Hairdresser” and A Craze’s cheesy bossa nova
“Wearing Your Jumper”, for example) and acquired-taste experiments. Disc Two still
has enough smashes— The Petticoats’ freaky
“Normal”, Dee Walker’s “Jump Back” (which also found a worthy home on Cherry
Red’s fabulous Millions Like Us: The
Story of the Mod Revival box set), The Delmonas’ insane basher
“Woa’ Now”, Eleanor Rigby’s tough power popper
“I Want to Sleep with You”— to warrant multiple spins.
