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Various ArtistsRough Trade Shops Indiepop 1 Mute/EMI For many years Rough Trade was, to all intents and purposes, independent music in the UK. Record store owner Geoff Travis founded the label in the late 70s after forging an alliance between other like-minded stores in the UK to distribute local product between themselves and it remained home to practically every interesting UK band at one time or another (most notably, it was they who signed The Smiths) until its demise in the late 90s - although, delightfully, it's since been resurrected. This two-disc compilation is an extraordinarily idiosyncratic trawl through cooler-than-thou moments chosen by the staff of the Rough Trade shops. And, not to put too fine a point on it, it's freakin' great. They've drawn from the classic indiepop days of the 80s, meaning that you get some gloriously pop moments from the likes of The Popguns (Waiting For The Winter), Shop Assistants (Safety Net) and Talulah Gosh (Talulah Gosh). However, the compilation's strength is the mini-history lesson it provides with girlishly twee early tracks from an utterly unrecognisable Primal Scream (All Fall Down), My Bloody Valentine (Paint A Rainbow) and Pop Will Eat Itself (Black Country Chainsaw Massacre) alongside Tim Gane's pre-Stereolab band McCarthy (Should The Bible Be Banned), The Vaselines (with the iconic Molly's Lips, best known thanks to Nirvana's cover), Helen Love's brilliant Beat Him Up and the Pooh Sticks' snide assessment of the UK indie scene I Know Someone Who Knows Someone Who Knows Alan McGee Quite Well. I can't speak for my long-suffering colleagues who've had to endure me thrashing these 46 tracks in the office over and over, but these are two discs of indiekid heaven.  |
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