VA - The Brit Box: U.K. Indie, Shoegaze, and Brit-Pop Gems of the Last Millennium [4CD Remastered Box Set] (2007)

Incredible four CD box set filled with influential and diverse U.K.-based Indie Pop and Rock acts that emerged from Great Britain in the broad wake of '80s Post-Punk. The Brit Box features all of the styles that wormed their way into the hearts of the music lovers during the late '80s, all through the '90s and beyond including Indie, Shoegaze, Baggy and Brit-Pop. While many artists featured here enjoyed superstar status in Mother England, their impact on U.S. charts was more peripheral but their stylistic imprint and collective uber-hip peer-pressure on late 20th century popular music overall is undeniable. With the respect given the '60s-era British Invasion in countless other compilations, Rhino's new trans-Atlantic ocean liner-sized box shaped to resemble a vintage UK phone booth with real flickering lights champions close to 80 independent acts that didn't so much reject mainstream musical sensibilities as spin it in their own fashion for hits that defined cool. Lovingly compiled with true oh to be in England spirit, Rhino hails Britannia with over five hours of tastemaker tracks.

Consider this super-cool, long-overdue 4-CD set the less-commercial but no-less telling riposte to the early 1960s British Invasion, when bands crossed the Atlantic to serve up what they'd learned, largely from under-heralded American artists (as in the Stones and Muddy Waters). During the period that The Brit Box puts under the microscope, England went from Margaret Thatcher and John Major to Tony Blair, from youth culture (and the press) zeroing in on football hooliganism to the rise of Acid House and Brit pop. So it is that the addled guitar haze of Spaceman 3's "Walkin' with Jesus" melds with the bouncy, synth-softened euphoria of "She Bangs the Drums," and the chirpy, jangly float of The Primitives' "Crash." These are moments in pop transition, as the peppy new wave of the 1980s meets up with the psychedelic, dope-colored moodiness of the '90s, and then, quickly, with the ascent of "Cool Brittania." As the Thatcher/Major era heads into the 1990s, Birdland--long forgotten--rips at the jugular with the quick, garage rock-infused "Shoot You Down," which, like so much here, keeps a finger keenly on a groove you could either embrace while hallucinating or pogo-ing on the dance floor (or both). New Order, Pulp, Oasis, Blur, Elastica, and My Bloody Valentine are all here, of course. They embrace the whole continuum, from the trippy to the happy to the… self-reflective, and they offer enough landmarks that Dodgy, and The Bluetones, and Silver Sun and These Animal Men all have space to drop in, adding layers to this spectacular omnibus collection. --Andrew Bartlett