Brit Box: UK Indie Shoegaze & Brit Pop Gems
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Free Music Notes for Brit Box: UK Indie Shoegaze & Brit Pop Gems
Free Music Review: Great collection, mixes the familiar and the almost-forgotten
Hit: 4 Stars
This box got lukewarm reviews from the UK press, perhaps trying to protect their own turf in reaction to a US label releasing a definitive UK collection. They're wrong. The Brit Box is a great set of a lot of the best music to come from the British Isles from the mid 80's to the late 90's. Most of the standard-bearers are here - Smiths, Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Stone Roses, Suede - plus some people who made some inroads in the States but kind of faded away (Kula Shaker, Elastica, Cornershop) and then some great tracks from bands who got lost in the trans-oceanic translation like Dodgy, Gene, Silver Sun, etc, that round out the collection nicely.
But as is always the case with thematic box sets, one can have some fun debating the roster or even track selections (great to hear the Shop Assistants again, but why not the brilliant A-side of that 45, "Safety Net?"). The liner notes bemoan the fact that the UK went from the Sex Pistols to Spandau Ballet within 4 years, and these bands are supposed to be the backlash against that. Then why include the Cure and Echo and the Bunnymen, whose debuts predated the miserable early 80's UK dancepop/exotic video/fashion bands? New Order, for all of their stellar pedigree, are a strange choice in a way...by the time their fellow Mancunians were inventing Brit Pop, they were kind of into their Ibiza electronica period. And Nick Heyward?
Why no Fall, Muse, Pastels, Woodentops, Yeah Yeah Noh, Nightingales, Marc Riley and the Creepers, Microdisney, Half Man Half Biscuit, Biff Bang Pow, Fuzzbox, Pop Will Eat Itself...and especially (let's hope it was just a licensing problem), why no Radiohead?
But I admit that's all nitpicking. Burn your own 5th disk if you want. Fans of indie rock and Brit Pop will love this, and younger listeners into the Arctic Monkeys, Babyshambles, the Fratellis, Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs, the Kooks, etc, will enjoy hearing where their generation's music came from too. This is one of the best box sets I've heard in a long time, I'd give it 4 and a half stars if half-stars were in the ratings key.
Free Music Review: Great Brits
Hit: 4 Stars
Thank God for the Brits. Outside of select USA bands, such as the Foo Fighters, the mantle of Rock is basically being kept alive by England. Doves, Snow Patrol, Embrace, Doves, and others, are producing great
rock, while we are dominated by Hip Hop -which produces some great stuff, but a lot of self righteous and repetitive pap. This collection, especially CDs 3&4, documents music that was only peripherally familiar to me while it was being made. It shows that ever since the Beatles hit our shores, the Old World has kept a steady stream of great music coming our way, even when we try to ignore it.
Free Music Review: Great Music... AND it blinks, too!
Hit: 4 Stars
I agree with other reviewers that the collection is not completely comprehensive, but it does cover a lot!
For some songs, I thought, "I love this song! I haven't heard it in ages!" while for some songs, I might have chosen another song to represent those artists.
If you don't like at least half the songs, it's probably not worth getting... but it makes a fantastic gift for a Brit-Pop fan because the "Brit Box" sign on the box is an LED light that blinks! Very cool extra.
Free Music Review: Incomplete survey
Hit: 4 Stars
Tis a shame that a millennium-spanning music collection doesn't include such Britpop classics as "Sumer is icumen in" and "Greensleeves", to name but two. True indie songs, they avoided the major labels for most of that period, and stayed high on the oral-trad charts.Free Music Review: Pretty darn solid
Hit: 4 Stars
Basically they took the music I listened to college and put it on a box set.
Disc 1 and 2 are fantastic
Disc 3 is excellent and Disc 4 is really good.
Overall a great collection of music.