| Product Summary | | Label: Rhino Records | | UPC: 00081227998356 | | Release Date: 11/20/2007 | | Buy.com Sku: 205866706 | | Item#: M3TTSS | | Buy.com Sales Rank: 25079 | Format:  CD |
|
|
|
|
| Song Listing |  |
Disc 1
| | Song Title | Sample | | 1. How Soon Is Now? - The Smiths ~ Various Artists |  | | 2. Lorelei - Cocteau Twins ~ Various Artists | | | 3. Primitive Painters - Felt ~ Various Artists | | | 4. Somewhere In China - Shop Assistants ~ Various Artists | | | 5. My Biggest Thrill - The Mighty Lemon Drops ~ Various Artists | | | 6. Just Like Heaven - The Cure ~ Various Artists | | | 7. Lips Like Sugar - Echo & The Bunnymen ~ Various Artists | | | 8. April Skies - Jesus & Mary Chain ~ Various Artists | | | 9. Walkin' With Jesus (Sound Of Confusion) - Spacemen 3 ~ Various Artists | | | 10. Crash - The Primitives ~ Various Artists | | | 11. Unbearable - The Wonder Stuff ~ Various Artists | | | 12. She Bangs the Drums - The Stone Roses ~ Various Artists | | | 13. Only One I Know, The - The Charlatans U.K. ~ Various Artists | | | 14. Step On - Happy Mondays ~ Various Artists | | | 15. Loaded - Primal Scream (Single Version) ~ Various Artists | | | 16. This Is How It Feels - Inspiral Carpets ~ Various Artists | | | 17. Obscurity Knocks - The Trash Can Sinatras ~ Various Artists | | | 18. There She Goes - The La's ~ Various Artists | | | 19. Here's Where the Story Ends - The Sundays ~ Various Artists | | Disc 2
| | Song Title | Sample | | 1. Vapour Trail - Ride ~ Various Artists | | | 2. Sight Of You - Pale Saints ~ Various Artists | | | 3. Only Shallow - My Bloody Valentine ~ Various Artists | | | 4. For Love - Lush ~ Various Artists | | | 5. Flying - The Telescopes ~ Various Artists | | | 6. Pearl - Chapterhouse ~ Various Artists | | | 7. I Want To Touch You - Catherine Wheel ~ Various Artists | | | 8. Trip & Slide - Bleach 03 ~ Various Artists | | | 9. Coast Is Clear - Curve ~ Various Artists | | | 10. You - Five Thirty ~ Various Artists | | | 11. This River Will Never Run Dry - Moose ~ Various Artists | | | 12. (Thought I'd Died) And Gone To Heaven - The Family Cat ~ Various Artists | | | 13. (Don't Cut Me Down) Mary Quant In Blue - The Dylans ~ Various Artists | | | 14. 0-0 A.E.T. (No Score After Extra Time) - Thousand Yard Stare ~ Various Artists | | | 15. Grey Cell Green - Ned's Atomic Dustbin ~ Various Artists | | | 16. Shoot You Down - Birdland ~ Various Artists | | | 17. Stay Beautiful - Manic Street Preachers ~ Various Artists | | | 18. Star Sign - Teenage Fanclub ~ Various Artists | | Disc 3
| | Song Title | Sample | | 1. Metal Mickey - Suede ~ Various Artists | | | 2. Duel - Swervedriver (Radio Edit) ~ Various Artists | | | 3. Breakfast - Eugenius ~ Various Artists | | | 4. Barfly - Superstar ~ Various Artists | | | 5. Regret - New Order ~ Various Artists | | | 6. Laid - James ~ Various Artists | | | 7. Kite - Nick Heyward ~ Various Artists | | | 8. Lazarus - The Boo Radleys ~ Various Artists | | | 9. You're In a Bad Way - Saint Etienne ~ Various Artists | | | 10. Wow & Flutter - Stereolab ~ Various Artists | | | 11. Tracy Jacks - Blur ~ Various Artists | | | 12. Live Forever - Oasis ~ Various Artists | | | 13. Common People - Pulp ~ Various Artists | | | 14. Speeed King - These Animal Men ~ Various Artists | | | 15. Wallflower - Mega City Four ~ Various Artists | | | 16. Insomniac - Echobelly ~ Various Artists | | | 17. Sleep Well Tonight - Gene ~ Various Artists | | | 18. Sleeping In - Menswear ~ Various Artists | | | 19. Alright - Supergrass ~ Various Artists | | | 20. Alright - Cast ~ Various Artists | | | 21. Stutter - Elastica ~ Various Artists | | Disc 4
| | Song Title | Sample | | 1. In a Room - Dodgy ~ Various Artists | | | 2. Girl From Mars - Ash ~ Various Artists | | | 3. Sale Of the Century - Sleeper ~ Various Artists | | | 4. Sleep - Marion ~ Various Artists | | | 5. Tattva - Kula Shaker ~ Various Artists | | | 6. Riverboat Song, The - Ocean Colour Scene ~ Various Artists | | | 7. You're Gorgeous - Babybird ~ Various Artists | | | 8. Slight Return - The Bluetones ~ Various Artists | | | 9. Something 4 the Weekend - Super Furry Animals ~ Various Artists | | | 10. Something For the Weekend - The Divine Comedy ~ Various Artists | | | 11. Brimful Of Asha - Cornershop ~ Various Artists | | | 12. Service - Silver Sun ~ Various Artists | | | 13. Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space - Spiritualized ~ Various Artists | | | 14. Wide Open Space - Mansun ~ Various Artists | | | 15. Step Into My World - Hurricane #1 ~ Various Artists | | | 16. Lucky Man - The Verve ~ Various Artists | | | 17. Untouchable - Rialto ~ Various Artists | | | 18. Mulder And Scully - Catatonia ~ Various Artists | | | 19. You Don't Care About Us - Placebo ~ Various Artists | | | 20. Oh Jim - Gay Dad ~ Various Artists | |
| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | Issued in 2007, Rhino's BRIT BOX presents an impressively wide-ranging four-CD set that surveys the U.K. alternative pop/rock scene from 1984 to 1999. Disc One focuses on influential acts that predated the Britpop boom, offering up undisputed classics by the Smiths ("How Soon Is Now?") and the Cure ("Just Like Heaven") along with tracks by less-commercial groups such as Cocteau Twins (the majestic "Lorelei") and Felt (the shimmering "Primitive Painters," which features Cocteaus vocalist Liz Fraser). The shoegaze movement, as best exemplified by Ride's sweeping "Vapour Trail" and My Bloody Valentine's woozy "Only Shallow," gets its due on Disc Two, while the remaining CDs shine the spotlight on mid-to-late-'90s Britpop bands, nodding to both key ensembles (Oasis's ubiquitous "Live Forever" and Pulp's surging "Common People") and bit players (Menswear's driving "Sleeping In" and Sleeper's wiry "Sale of the Century"). Capping off the whole affair is a comprehensive booklet and (literally) flashy package, which makes for a bright and far-reaching overview of the era. | | Not all British pop is Britpop, nor is all U.K. indie necessarily pop music -- nor does British indie of the '80s sound like British indie of the '90s, for that matter. There are certain similarities and shared traits, along with a clear progression from post-punk to Britpop, but the notoriously mercurial British music world of the '80s and '90s had too many niches and scenes -- and was documented by a music press obsessed with bestowing new names to even minor ripples in pop music -- to be tidily boxed up, as Rhino's well-intentioned and hopelessly muddled four-disc set The Brit Box: U.K. Indie, Shoegaze, and Brit-Pop Gems of the Last Millennium attempts to do. That subtitle suggests that the box digs into the specific subgenres of British alternative rock, when it does nothing of the sort. Instead, it throws together 78 tracks recorded by U.K. acts of the '80s and '90s, assuming that if the artist resides in the United Kingdom and isn't Bros, Take That, Wet Wet Wet, or the Spice Girls, they're fair game. Ground zero is the Smiths' 1984 anthem "How Soon Is Now?" -- a widely acknowledged classic single that could very well be argued as the foundation of the classicist guitar pop that ran throughout British '90s rock. Fair starting point, but instead of pursuing a logical path through the next 15 years, The Brit Box careens all over the place, following a well-worn path for a while before suddenly taking a detour -- sometimes picturesque, sometimes quite rocky -- that leads back to familiar territory before it all stops suddenly, arbitrarily with Gay Dad's 1999 Britpop afterbirth, "Oh Jim." If that's what all this music was leading to, then what was the point of it all? | | Of course, Gay Dad was hardly the destination for Britpop, even if they almost certainly were the end of the line for British indie in more ways than one. The very fact that such an ambitious, far-reaching set like this ends on such a sour note highlights how unfocused The Brit Box is. Although it's assembled in chronological order, there is no narrative thrust to the four discs, as certain threads are dropped entirely -- the dance-rock innovations of Primal Scream and Happy Mondays are forgotten by the time the set gets to the mid-'90s, even though electronica was so pervasive at this time, Noel Gallagher was singing with the Chemical Brothers, a cross-pollination this set never comes close to acknowledging -- while musical logic is sacrificed in favor of cutesy sequencing, with Gene's "Sleep Well Tonight" followed by Menswear's "Sleeping In," Cast's "Alright" piggybacking Supergrass' "Alright," and Super Furry Animals' "Something 4 the Weekend" leading to the Divine Comedy's "Something For the Weekend." Such shenanigans are good for a chuckle when scanning a track listing, but they don't make for great listening, nor does the odd mix of selections from the titans of Britpop, where Blur is represented by the deep album track "Tracy Jacks" instead of the era-defining "Parklife" and "Girls & Boys" (or, if you want to get obscure, either of the influential singles "Popscene" or "For Tomorrow," for that matter) while their arch-rivals Oasis get the too-familiar "Live Forever" when they would be better served by something livelier and unexpected; and for as indelible as Suede's "Metal Mickey" is, "The Drowners" kick-started the Britpop phenomenon. This is a problem with second-tier bands as well -- Sleeper gets "Sale of the Century" instead of their fantastic one-shot "Inbetweener," Menswear's Elastica-aping "Daydreamer" is their great moment in the sun (which points out that for as wonderful as "Stutter" is, Elastica is indeed a band that could have also been represented by their biggest hit, "Connection") -- and these off-kilter selections don't quite balance out with the set's sharp inclusions, of which there are many, whether it's the obvious ("She Bangs the Drums," "Loaded," "There She Goes," "Here's Where the Story Ends," "Vapour Trail," "Only Shallow," "Common People") or cult favorites (Eugenius' "Breakfast," Babybird's "You're Gorgeous," Manson's "Wide Open Space"). | | Then again, each British scene from the '80s and '90s was so full of great singles that it'd be easy to pick songs at random and come up with something that is reasonably enjoyable, which The Brit Box is. The problem is, the box seems like it was assembled at random, as it has all those odd song selections, omissions both major and minor -- never mind that Radiohead is missing, where are the Auteurs, one-time rivals with Suede, where are one-hit wonders like Space's "Female of the Species" or Shampoo's ridiculous "Trouble," where are Orlando or any other Romo bands? -- and questionable inclusions (all these great bands were overlooked in favor of Superstar, Rialto, and Nick Heyward's lovely but tangential "Kite"?). Worst of all, it drifts from place to place, never making the connection between the C-86 aftershocks of the beginning of the set and the dream pop the pops up on the second disc, never setting up a context for how different the bright guitars of Britpop sounded in comparison to those soft, swirling harmonies, or making a case for the explosion of great pure pop tunes in the mid-'90s, for that matter. Instead, The Brit Box just throws a bunch of songs -- some great, some good, some notable only as a memory -- in a box, hoping that it will pass as an introduction to kids who know the name Misshapes as a club, not a song, or evoke some nostalgia, which it does, but anybody who lived through a time when these songs were on college radio or 120 Minutes will only think, "I remember how it was back then and it wasn't like this." ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine |
| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 10/02/2007 | | Original Release Date : 2007 | | Catalog ID : 159804 | | Label : Rhino Records (USA) | | Number of Discs : 4 | | Runtime : 312m : 12s | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00081227998356 |
|
| | Professional Reviews | | Rolling Stone (p.87)
- 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "It's all here -- a slew of shoegazer fan faves, with the still-dizzying guitars of Ride, Curve, Lush and Swervedriver..."Uncut (p.111)
- 3 stars out of 5 -- "It's a curious cultural history, mixing mod, punk, indie, shoegazing, baggy and Brit-pop....Disc 1 amounts to a history of '80s indie, from The Smiths to The Sundays..." |
|
| |
|
__USERID__
http://www.buy.com/prod/the-brit-box-u-k-indie-shoegaze-and-brit-pop-gems-of-the-last/q/loc/109/205866706.html
|
