Whilst streaming playlists have become somewhat of a leviathan bestriding the world of multi-artist showcasing and taste-making, there is still space for the defiantly valiant art of assembling thoughtful standalone compilations. Particularly when they are curated by gatekeepers from the DIY mix tape generation, who also have a Rolodex replete with choice contributors at their fingertips. Enter then, two collections vying for such attention from reliable and familiar sources.
The Cords
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“Hey hey, my my, indie-pop can never die,” as Neil Young didn’t quite sing. From the boom years during the 1980s and into the 1990s, through a lower-profile but still fecund 2000s to 2010s and into the ongoing revival of the 2020s, the combination of independent-mindedness and a deep-seated love of melody, has sustained a cross-generational thread. The following three releases – one archival and two brand new – convincingly confirm this somewhat comforting sense of continuity and survivalism, whilst also capturing the internal diversity of it all.