Brit Box: UK Indie Shoegaze & Brit Pop Gems [Special Edition]

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 20, 2007)
• Original Release Date: November 20, 2007
• Number of Discs: 4
• Format: Special Edition
• Label: Rhino / Wea
• ASIN: B000TXNBDG
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #57,089 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #54 in Music > Alternative Rock > Indie & Lo-Fi > Shoegazing

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. How Soon Is Now? - The Smiths

2. Lorelei - Cocteau Twins

3. Primitive Painters - Primitive Partners

4. Somewhere in China - Somewhere In China

5. My Biggest Thrill - The Mighty Lemon Drops

See all 19 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Vapour Trail - Ride

2. Sight of You - Pale Saints

3. Only Shallow - My Bloody Valentine

4. For Love - Lush

5. Flying - The Telescopes

See all 18 tracks on this disc

Disc: 3

1. Metal Mickey - Cast

2. Duel [Radio Edit] - Elastica

3. Breakfast

4. Barfly

5. Regret

See all 21 tracks on this disc

Disc: 4

1. In a Room - Placebo

2. Girl from Mars - Gay Dad

3. Sale of the Century

4. Sleep

5. Tattva

See all 20 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

No Description Available.
Genre: Popular Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 20-NOV-2007

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great collection, mixes the familiar and the almost-forgotten, January 14, 2008

By 

David Sheridan (Fanwood, New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Brit Box: UK Indie Shoegaze & Brit Pop Gems (Audio CD)

This box got lukewarm reviews from the UK press, perhaps trying to protect their own turf in reaction to a US label releasing a definitive UK collection. They're wrong. The Brit Box is a great set of a lot of the best music to come from the British Isles from the mid 80's to the late 90's. Most of the standard-bearers are here - Smiths, Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Stone Roses, Suede - plus some people who made some inroads in the States but kind of faded away (Kula Shaker, Elastica, Cornershop) and then some great tracks from bands who got lost in the trans-oceanic translation like Dodgy, Gene, Silver Sun, etc, that round out the collection nicely.

But as is always the case with thematic box sets, one can have some fun debating the roster or even track selections (great to hear the Shop Assistants again, but why not the brilliant A-side of that 45, "Safety Net?"). The liner notes bemoan the fact that the UK went from the Sex Pistols to Spandau Ballet within 4 years, and these bands are supposed to be the backlash against that. Then why include the Cure and Echo and the Bunnymen, whose debuts predated the miserable early 80's UK dancepop/exotic video/fashion bands? New Order, for all of their stellar pedigree, are a strange choice in a way...by the time their fellow Mancunians were inventing Brit Pop, they were kind of into their Ibiza electronica period. And Nick Heyward?

Why no Fall, Muse, Pastels, Woodentops, Yeah Yeah Noh, Nightingales, Marc Riley and the Creepers, Microdisney, Half Man Half Biscuit, Biff Bang Pow, Fuzzbox, Pop Will Eat Itself...and especially (let's hope it was just a licensing problem), why no Radiohead?

But I admit that's all nitpicking. Burn your own 5th disk if you want. Fans of indie rock and Brit Pop will love this, and younger listeners into the Arctic Monkeys, Babyshambles, the Fratellis, Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs, the Kooks, etc, will enjoy hearing where their generation's music came from too. This is one of the best box sets I've heard in a long time, I'd give it 4 and a half stars if half-stars were in the ratings key.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not bad and a bit underrated, December 28, 2007

By 

Barack Obama (Washington DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brit Box: UK Indie Shoegaze & Brit Pop Gems (Audio CD)

The Brit Box has taken a beating from music critcs who have derided it for not being representative enough of the British indie scene, not including enough of the right songs, and not including some defining artists of the scene. I'm not here to do that. Instaed, I'll focus on the music that is on the box. So let's break this bad boy down one disc at a time.

DISC 1:

A lot of good stuff here. This disc includes the classic Smiths song "How Soon Is Now," plus classics from the Stone Roses, The Cure, The La's, The Charlatans, Happy Mondays, and Echo & The Bunnymen. The Primitives' "Crash" was a great find for me, and "April Skies" may be the Jesus & Mary Chain's best song. I'm not big on Inspiral Carpets, but that's just nit-picking.

DISC 2:

Also pretty good. Aside from Ride, My Bloody Valentine and Teenage Fanclub being represented with some of their best stuff, I found some great tracks in Catherine Wheel's "I Want To Touch You," and Curve's "Coast Is Clear." "Shoot You Down" by Birdland is classic, as is "Trip & Slide" by Bleach. I don't like Thousand Yard Stare, but it wasn't enough to ruin the disc for me.

DISC 3:

Not as strong as the first two discs, but still worth hearing. Disc 3 is front-loaded with great tracks by Suede, Swervedriver, New Order, James and Superstar. Then it hits a bit of a dry spell, even though great tracks by Oasis and Pulp (plus "Speeed King" by These Animal Men) are in the middle. The disc has Supergrass and Menswear towards the end, and it closes with a rampaging "Stutter" by Elastica. Overall, I have few complaints here, except that I can think of four or five other tracks off Parklife that I would have chosen besides "Tracy Jacks."

DISC 4:

This is where it starts to come apart. The Britpop scene was changing, and not as much great music was being made in that style. Personally, I think the box set's producers should have limited this set from 1984-1996 instead of taking it through to 1999. There was plenty of great music made during that time to fill 4 discs.

Anyway, about the music on disc 4: There are good songs on here, and they're mostly saddled at the beginning. Ash's "Girl From Mars" is great, and so is Sleeper and Kula Shaker. However, this disc drags after track 6, with very little to pick it up. Silver Sun's "Service" is good, and there are superb tracks by Mansun and The Verve. "Oh Jim" isn't a bad closer. Yet after the high level of quality throughout discs 1-3, the last disc is a bit of a letdown.

I won't do much complaining about what isn't on here. Apparently, the producers of this set weren't able to license Slowdive. Apart from that, I think the biggest omission is Depeche Mode; some Violator-era tracks would have fit in nicely on this set.

Yes, the Brit Box could have been better. But it's not as terrible as the music press has made it out to be.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Brits, April 3, 2008

By 

Louis J. Perillo (Pensacola, Fl, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Brit Box: UK Indie Shoegaze & Brit Pop Gems (Audio CD)

Thank God for the Brits. Outside of select USA bands, such as the Foo Fighters, the mantle of Rock is basically being kept alive by England. Doves, Snow Patrol, Embrace, Doves, and others, are producing great
rock, while we are dominated by Hip Hop -which produces some great stuff, but a lot of self righteous and repetitive pap. This collection, especially CDs 3&4, documents music that was only peripherally familiar to me while it was being made. It shows that ever since the Beatles hit our shores, the Old World has kept a steady stream of great music coming our way, even when we try to ignore it.