Various Artists Rough Trade Shops – Indiepop 09 Review

The follow-up to 2004’s initial Rough Trade Shops indie-pop compilation, which set out to collect together tracks from 20 years of the jaunty and fuzzily jangling subgenre, is a more streamlined affair than its predecessor. No double-disc delight this time around, as financial constraints restrict proceedings to 25 tracks on a single CD; additionally, the focus is on the Here and Now, with a selection of acts from home and abroad firmly footed in the indie underground, several barely with a single release underneath their belts.

One such act is London newcomers Veronica Falls, who until recently only had one song available on their MySpace page. That track – the excellent Found Love in a Graveyard – has now been joined by Beachy Head, which features here and stands out as a highlight. A rough-edged number that mixes sweet backing vocals with an insistent lead somewhere between heartbreak and murderous (or suicidal?) intent – the title’s something of a signpost – it’s a rollickingly brilliant, wonderfully lo-fi affair that doesn’t fail to get toes tapping and fingers firing up Google to find out more about the band.

From the States come Vivian Girls, Girls and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and Sweden provides listeners with the sublimely swinging sounds of Love is All and Sad Day for Puppets. All of these acts – and their domestic peers are no exceptions – are writing the kind of music that could have emerged at any point in the past 25 years or so, since the halcyon days of C86 and Sarah Records; of Postcard and, of course, Rough Trade itself. Slightly more raucous are the excellently monikered Betty and the Werewolves, though their frantically paced David Cassidy is still dripping in immediately engaging melody. Rather less driven are The Bobby McGee’s, but they’re ever so cute.

With recognisable names sitting alongside many absolutely new to these ears – Brits Play People and Brooklyn’s The Girls at Dawn receive debut listens – Indiepop 09 is certain to introduce buyers to a number of future favourites, especially if the work of the established acts here, such as wide-touring Welsh outfit Los Campesinos! (whose You! Me! Dancing! is an indie club staple), is of utmost interest. Which is surely the point of a good compilation: to direct ears to the exciting and new by way of a few familiar ditties. On this level, Indiepop 09 is a complete success.