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Play It Loud - Various Artists

 


Year Released: 2007

Label: Universal

Year Bought: 2007

If you came across this collection of songs today, it would be as a Spotify playlist marked "Indie Barbecue".

It's easy to be dismissive of compilations, but in the days before streaming they were a good way of hoovering up scenes or moments in time, and sometimes would introduce you to bands you'd not paid much attention to or even heard of.

The theme of this seems to be "chartable guitar music", which is why you get Fall Out Boy's 'This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race' on the same disc as Happy Monday's 'Kinky Afro'.

There's bands you'd expect to hear – Oasis, Stone Roses, Kaiser Chiefs – alongside some songs that have become indie staples – 'Chelsea Dagger' by the Fratellis, for example.

There are some tunes and bands I'd completely forgotten about. Remember The Automatic and their single 'Monster'? Well this compilation has their other tune, 'Raoul', which actually isn't bad. There's also a Jet song that isn't 'Are You Gonna Be My Girl', with 'Rollover DJ' getting a placing, and 'Bones' from the Killers, which never really gets a radio play anymore.

Other 'you probably forgot they existed' acts include Little Man Tate, Boy Kill Boy, and the Rakes.

To be honest, if would have been more interesting if it just had acts from the 00s indie boom on there and been a snapshot of that period. Do we really need 'Live Forever', 'Riverboat Song', 'The Changingman', 'Praise You' and others on this compilation?

It's not bad, because these songs aren't bad, but it just feels a bit pointless and stale.

5/10


Track Listing

Disc: 1

1 Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby

2 Klaxons - Golden Skans

3 The Killers - Bones

4 Fall Out Boy - This Ain't A Scene It's An Arms Race

5 The Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger

6 The Automatic - Raoul

7 Oasis - Live Forever

8 Stone Roses - I Am The Resurrection

9 Hard-Fi - Living For The Weekend

10 Maximo Park - Going Missing

11 Feeder - Just The Way I'm Feeling

12 Ocean Colour Scene - Riverboat Song

13 Ash - Burn Baby Burn

14 Happy Mondays - Kinky Afro

15 Stereophonics - Dakota

16 Gomez - Whippin' Piccadilly

17 Little Man Tate - Sexy In Latin

18 Dirty Pretty Things - Bang Bang You're Dead

19 Jane's Addiction - Been Caught Stealing

20 Fat Boy Slim - Praise You


Disc: 2

1 Razorlight - Before I Fall To Pieces

2 Snow Patrol - Run

3 Bloc Party - The Prayer

4 The Feeling - Love It When You Call

5 Travis - Writing To Reach You

6 The Charlatans - My Beautiful Friend

7 Ordinary Boys - Boys Will Be Boys

8 Echobelly - Great Things

9 The Libertines - What Became Of The Likely Lads

10 Supergrass - Going Out

11 Shed Seven - Going For Gold

12 Young Knives - She's Attracted To

13 Pulp - Common People

14 Paul Weller - The Changingman

15 Faith - No More Epic

16 Boy Kill Boy - Suzie

17 Sleeper - Inbetweener

18 Gene - As Good As It Gets

19 The Rakes - We Danced Together

20 Jet - Rollover DJ

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