VARIOUS ARTISTS

We're not going to be able to sway you into purchasing this LP by listing its big names. There are none. Instead this is a superbly curated compilation of lesser known limited run records and private press recordings mainly in a lo-fi pop folk vein made between 1961 and 1991. What makes the album an essential purchase is that the curators have located some brilliant tracks that you would never have ever discovered unless you are pretty much the nerdiest crate digger in the history of crate diggers.

Highlights include the wonderful opening 'I So Liked the Spring' by Linda Smith. a delicious composition that sits somewhere between Young Marble Giants and early Smog, the equally delicious Sandy Denny ish folk harmony pop of the Seraphims and Gary Davenport's proto-Sarah records dream pop of 'Sarra', a track that he apparently refused to release after he split up with the 'Sarra' in question poor lad.   

Almost every track has something to recommend it from the primitive synth pop of the brilliantly named Some of My Best Friends are Canadians or Warfield Soilers who incredibly...incredibly sound like Sam Herring (Future Islands) singing early Brighter. There's the odd piece of cheesiness from time to time but if you pick up one compilation of unknown artists this year let it be this one. The album has a strange tinge, autumnal and melancholy, the sounds of things lost on shelves as peoples hopes and dreams sit gathering dust.