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Various Artists - Rough Trade Shops: Indiepop 1

Author: Sarah

Date: 07/16/2025

Buy: Discogs

Hi all! I wrote this review a while back, and never posted it here. I always thought it doesn't really fit the typical review mold in that it's not by a single artist, but it was one of my introductions to indiepop so I figured it's super appropriate here anyway! I'm kind of mixed on it now, as you'll see, but it's probably still worth your consideration as long as you keep its limitations in mind.

This album, along with NME C86 [Deluxe 3-CD Edition], was my first real introduction to the world of indiepop. While C86 focused in on a very specific time and scene, this compilation is meant to be a broad overview of everything that indiepop had to offer at the time of its release, from pioneers like the Monochrome Set to then-current bands like Love is All. It's the album that got me into bands like Talulah Gosh, Camera Obscura, and Beat Happening, and for that it's earned a permanent place in my collection.

Unfortunately, it also taught me early on that a lot of indiepop is just dreadful. For example, I've not listened to Aberfeldy's "Vegetarian Restaurant" in nearly a decade now, and yet it still stands out to me as one of the most insipid songs I've ever heard ("Love the way that you shell the peas / Only wish that you were shelling me", give me a break!), and songs like "Preposterous Tales" and "I Know Someone Who Knows Someone Who Knows Alan McGee Quite Well" are based around extremely irritating hooks.

Less judgmentally, the compilation fails at showing the world of indiepop for one very simple reason: it fails to show the world at all. Of the 46 songs on this compilation, only two come from outside the Anglosphere. There's liner notes that talk about the bands the compilers wish they could have added, and none of them are from outside the Anglosphere, either! Not even so much as an attempt at getting a no-brainer pick like Flipper's Guitar or Jens Lekman! In fact, it seems that they don't consider any of that worth their time (the liner notes for "El Resto de mi Vida" dutifully tell us that you can't possibly name three great Spanish bands). That kind of willful ignorance really ruins the whole thing, you know?

So basically, I'm of two minds about this compilation. On the one hand, I'm heavily indebted to it for being my introduction to indiepop, and at the time I felt that it did a good job. But knowing what I know now, I don't think there's any chance that I'd be giving this to someone trying to get into the genre.