★★★★★
Glorious double-disc overview of mid-’80s indie-pop compiled by Pete Paphides.
“THE VERNACULAR of girl groups, early Motown and teen-pop became the language of indie-pop… this was music in love with the idea of being in love.” If you read Pete Paphides’ rapturous liner-notes to this lovingly-compiled anthology of ’80s indie-pop you may be tempted to accuse the author of high romanticism. However, the records he’s collected here – whether it’s the naive ecstatic entreaty of The Sea Urchins’ Pristine Christine or The Loft’s effervescent Byrdsian stumble Why Does The Rain – are similarly hung up on romantic ideals. Back in North Staffs Poly in 1987, this writer considered such Sensitive highlights as The Railway Children’s Brighter or The Bodines’ Therese as the doorway to a unique ecstatic truth, an exquisite romantic euphoria otherwise denied. It’s therefore a revelation to relisten to these records, perfectly sequenced alongside 28 of their brethren, and realise I was right all along. Give your heart to it.
Andrew Male