5 out of 5

Label: Up Records

Produced by: Various

My standards for label comps have been reiterated elsewhere, but on the slim, slim chance you don’t read every single one of my reviews, let’s go over them again…

Essentially, all aspects should be in support of making me interested in your label. Are the artists on, or linked to your label? How do I listen to more? Does your label have a theme – including not having a theme? Are the songs representative of the bands? How do they sound when played together.

Now, of course, there are exceptions to all rules, but I think these are generally fair; if the goal is to get me to check out more, ideally the listen assists with that.

I’ve been through this Up comp – and its bands’ catalogues – numerous times. I’ve fallen in and out of love with said bands numerous times as well, and often the start of that cycle… is this comp. Yes, some bias involved because this music hits a nostalgic sweet spot – the more indie, sometimes weirder cousin to K Records’ punky output, Up happened to house a lot of landmark bands for me – but regardless, I think that just makes me more of an ‘authority’ on the compilation’s achievement of my standards.

Just top down, the sequencing is great, segueing electro-pop (Land of the Loops) to downbeat folk or indie (Mike Johnson), spiking in louder, angular guitar rock (Modest Mouse); there are bands on here I know I’m not into, but the way they slot in is ideal, and gets me to listen. This is without choosing off-brand or tracks, either: every song is a good summary of what each band can do, and when I want to find out more, why, there’s a list telling me where these tracks came from…!

Just well thought out, cleanly presented, and considered as a front-to-back listen as well as a label sampler. Definitely why this thing has remained in my collection when individual releases may have not.