Various - Littlest Album 2

  by Geraint Jones

published: 24 / 7 / 2004

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Review

As quirky as they come, this fascinating and endearing collection is a veritable treasure trove and incontrovertible proof that sometimes good things do indeed come in small packages. Squeezing in no less than 12 tracks , by 12 different artists, with each track lasting no more than a minute, often less, few full-length albums, let alone the admittedly none too crowded 7” album format, could possibly hope to compress nearly as much diversity as can be found in these delectably brief grooves. Opening with the Electroluvs, a three-way collision between the Fall, Belle And Sebastian and Soft Cell, the set continues at pace, encompassing along the way the thrash-pop of Sunderland’s Mavis, the warm electronica of Ives, the subtle pop inflections of Calvin, the intriguingly named Teppanyaki who seem to have subversively appropriated someone else’s song as their own, and the delicate acoustic guitar sound-scapes of Martin Bowman. And that doesn’t even cover half of it! A few tracks might fail to hit the spot but as they're so brief anyway it barely matters. Overall this is thouroughly entertaining stuff and such an innovative and fun concept that it’s hard to fault at all so I won’t. Well worth 12 minutes of anyone’s time ! Hopefully Volume 3 won’t be too far behind.

Track Listing:-