Who doesn't enjoy a record company sampler? Thinking back to Virgin's V and Cash Cows, Cherry Red's Pillows & Prayers, and even earlier, CBS's The Rock Machine Turns You On.
So this 2CD Rough Trade sampler was never going to stay on the shelves of a Norwich charity shop last month with a price tag of a single pound.
There's the occasional name I've heard of, (Django Django, Kate Le Bon, Loudon Wainwright III, Kurt Vile, Super Furry Animals) but most are unknown, so I had no idea what to expect.
The overall impression is one of pleasant background. Nothing leapt out at me as wonderful, and nothing had me reaching for the skip button. Forest Fire's Fortune Teller is a slow, interesting opener, and the first CD seems to move to a run of female vocal songs, the stand outs being Magic Kids' surf-rock Hey Boy and YACHT's Psychic City. There's then a run of world/Americana tracks, none of which stray beyond pleasant, until the final song Home by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zones.
CD2 continues the Americana line, opening with Rick Tomlinson's Surfin' UAE, a very Peter Gunn like guitar piece with an Eastern tinge, then we move to some more electronic sounds, the Horrors' Whole New Way sounding very Human League, and Super Furry Animals not disappointing with The Very Best Of Neil Diamond. The Units (High Pressure Days) channel a Talking Heads like sound.
Crocodiles (I Wanna Kill) neatly combine a Won't Get Fooled Again with a Jesus And Mary Chain sound, while The Soft Pack (Answer To Yourself) are Strokes soundalikes. There's some old school punk from Male Bonding and Pissed Jeans (fine band name!) before the rock interlude returns us to an electronic section with not much to excite, other than Nacho Patrol's Africa Space Program and final track Spiritual, a very English rap from conceptual artist Bob Parks.
It's an interesting listen, with enough to enjoy, and nothing that's awful. A pretty decent sampler.
3* - Plenty of good sounds to enjoy, and certain worth revisiting.
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