Uneven but interesting '03 sampler
Joseph Geni | Evanston, Illinois United States | 01/16/2004
(3 out of 5 stars)
"When I saw that Blur and Beth Gibbons and Postal Service were on this, I didn't think I'd be getting as much techno as I got. But hey, that's what your risk when you buy a mega-compilation like this.This disc honors some of the best and most popular pop/rock/electronica that came out in 2003 by taking a top studio track from each of 72 different artists who played at Benicassim 2003 festival in Spain Aug. 8-10. As such, it's naturally going to seem uneven to you and I because it encompasses far more musical tastes than most people like. There's plenty of crappy dance tracks and throwaway light rock here, but chances are you'll find most of it more than listenable and REALLY like maybe 1/4 of the content, and given that there's five hours of content, that's a pretty good haul for your money. Plus you'll find out about a lot of great artists that you'd probably never heard of, like Barbara Morgenstern, Death in Vegas, and 808 State. That's what releases like this are really about."