Post author: LosslessFlac

1CD | EAC-Rip | APE-image +cue +log +COVERS | February 25, 1998 | 456,88 Mb
Genre: Pop | RAR 3% Rec. | Label: Mushroom
RS.com + HF.com, Turbobit, Sharingmatrix

Given the diligent classicism of Ian Broudie’s pop template–its borrowings from and canonisation of past “greats”–it’s unsurprising how few risks he took. The “band” was conceived initially as a solo, studio project, and those early tracks–with their handmade, all-my-own-work feel–reveal him as an unwitting contemporary of The Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt, another practitioner of “music-box pop”. However, as Broudie’s vision opened up to accommodate other players, and the arrangements became looser, the songs lost a little of their fragility, became noticeably more joyous and celebratory. Complete with the obligatory bonus tracks (a previously-unreleased cover version of the 60s hit “You Showed Me” and two new songs, “What You Say” and “Brain Drain”), this compilation makes for an engaging journey, through which the only common factors are Broudie’s unerring instinct for a good tune, and that plaintive sob of a voice. Pure, indeed. –Andrew McGuire

Tracklist:

01 What You Say
02 The Life of Riley
03 Lucky You
04 You Showed Me
05 Change
06 Waiting for Today to Happen (97 version)
07 Pure
08 Sugar Coated Iceberg
09 Ready or Not
10 All I Want
11 Perfect
12 What If…
13 Sense
14 Brain Drain
15 Marvellous
16 Three Lions