Rough Trade Shops - Indiepop Vol.1

Two different lots of people are going to be out to buy this really - firstly a younger Indie crowd who want a kind of ready-made 'Nuggets-style' compilation, choc full of gems from the golden era of the UK indiepop scene circa '86 to '88 and secondly a load of old bowlheads like myself who lived through the whole thing and want something to stick in the CD player instead of having to dig out a load of their battered old 7" singles.

This compilation curiously hits the mark for neither set of people really, with it's hit and miss inclusion of some Pre-86 stuff that's readily available on CD anyway and most importantly it's omission of SO SO many fantastic singles from this period ( that aren't available on CD anywhere ) in favour of some really rather lacklustre newer stuff.

Hell, I really am picking holes, because there's still a whole heap of great music on here and I appreciate that not everything out there would have been readily available for inclusion, but overall, some Quality Control needs putting in place for Volume 2. A wider net of compilers needed, maybe ?

This is indiepop pre-Britpop, an era which mangled British retro bands who wanted to be The Beatles or The Kinks on major labels with the indie-tag. This is, er, old school indie- you know, the kind that members of Belle & Sebastian were reared on. Notable contributions come from Felt, The Wedding Present, The Jesus & Mary Chain (this & Lost in Translation should kickstart that Psychocandy-revival!), McCarthy, AR Kane, Lush, pre-Realise MBV, The Pastels, Magnetic Fields, Velvet Crush & The Darling Buds (the latter ended up trying to be Transvision Vamp, appearing on kids TV & promptly vanishing). It's all interesting & fun, even if it includes Bis and Pop Will Eat Itself; amusing to hear early Primal Scream in their C-86-stylee (pity that the hard to find Velocity Girl wasn't put on here. & shouldn't there be some Orange Juice, Microdisney or Go-Betweens? Smiths even? ). Still Josef-K's classic Sorry for Laughing (as covered by Propaganda) and The Monochrome Set's eponymous track show us exactly why Franz Ferdinand are so unoriginal (that's if you haven't heard Dirk Wears White Sox!!). & it's very canny to include The Vaselines' classic Molly's Lips, one of the greatest pop-songs of all time- put it against anything (Can't Get You Out of My Head, I Travel, She Belongs To Me, Felicity, Lazy Line Painter Jane, The Light Pours Out of Me, Jump etc) & it stands up (The Beatles? Give me a break...).

Even better than that is Beat Happening's Indian Summer (as covered by Luna & Spectrum), which is possibly my favourite song of all time (oh, it's an infinite list which frequently includes Robert Wyatt's Sea Song, Van Morrison's TB Sheets, Associates' White Car in Germany, David Sylvian's Orpheus, Radiohead's How to...Completely, Dennis Wilson's Time, The Band's Whispering Pines, PIL's Death Disco, Go-Betweens' Spring Rain, The Congos' Children Crying, The Lovin'Spoonful's Do You Believe in Magic?,The Bunnymen's Stars are Stars, Aaliyah's More Than a Woman, Scott Walker's Farmer in the City, Chic's I Want Your Love, Colin Newman's Alone,Abba's The Day Before You Came, Gene Clark's Spanish Guitar, Can's Mother Sky etc), with the most perfect lyrics that seem to me the definition of not only a pop-song, but of that certain teen-age that mutated into mythology in my sub-Proustian-memory-palace some time ago: "Breakfast in cemetery/Boy tasting wild cherry/Touch girl, apple blossom/Just a boy playing possum...We'll come back for Indian Summer & go our seperate ways...What is that cheerful sound?/Rain falling on the ground/We'll wear a jolly crown/Buckle up- we're wayward bound...We'll come back for Indian Summer and go our seperate ways...Motorbike to cemetery/Picnic on wild berries/French toast with molasses/Croquet and Baked-Alaskas...We'll come back for Indian Summer & go our seperate ways...Cover me with rain/Walk me down the lane/I'll drink from your drain/We will never change- no matter what they say." Makes me think of films like Heathers, River's Edge & Twin Peaks for some reason! Indian Summer alone is reason to buy this compilation, which coming from Rough Trade is obviously great stuff anyway!!! One of the best compilations to be released this year...