4 out of 5

Label: digital release

Produced by: People Like Us, various

100+ tracks; 6+ hours of music… this truly is “all” you need to know about People Like Us, Vicki Bennet’s long-running cut-and-paste-and-massage music project, but I put quotes around that for the same reason I can’t say this is an all-out must listen: it’s definitely a fantastic playlist that runs through all the big PLU eras, but it’s also definitely not my preferred way of consuming this stuff.

We have some solid comps besides this digital offering, including Recyclopaedia Brittanica (the first 10ish years of PLU) and Sharity!, the latter of which comes after this collection, and thus gets a bit more shine from post-2018/2019 stuff to play with. Both of those sets suffer from a bit of tonal ping-ponging, even though sequenced chronologically; this is always going to be an issue with compilations – the music wasn’t initially made to go together – and maybe especially so with something as potentially immersive as PLU. At the same time, because People Like Us’ mission is kind of to prove how all of music fits together, there is room for rearrangement, for sure, but because of the sequencing going in order, we get stuck in modes of being silly or sad, with the buffer you might find on a proper album to break that up missing.

“25 Years” has a much longer runway, and so kind of avoids those issues as a result, since you have a long time to get into the vibe of any run of tracks, plus there’re less instances of excerpts from long-runners (or radio show clips) in order to make a physical copy’s runtime limitations. However, the very nature of this collection prevents it from being something you put on to actively listen to; it’s… kind of designed for background music. And that’s where my comment about that not being my preferred way of listening comes into play: I like my PLU front and center. As presented, 25 years will float in and out of grabbing your attention, which I’m sure isn’t at all a bad thing to Bennet – I imagine she’d appreciate the way we can go about our day with the subtle influence of her work in our ears – but I know I’d rather A. cycle through a few different albums by different bands over 6 hours or B. listen to a select set of PLU music and be more immersed in it. I get that no one’s requiring me to listen to this set straight (and I didn’t), but it’s just so much music, it’s hard for things to really stand out.

Obviously, if you find PLU interesting but maybe can’t commit to an album, your take might be different: having something as background music might be your entry point. Either way, this is an amazingly broad (and ultimately diverse) set of funny, strange, sweet and sad mixology from PLU, covers a bundle of years and styles.