Broadcast ‎– The Future Crayon

It's every collector's worst nightmare: all the singles and EPs and rarities we've been hording finally gets compiled in one place. So be it: Broadcast's _The Future Crayon_, while it doesn't hold together as an album, per se, still has moments of heartstopping beauty. For instance, the haunting "Illumination" is like a a break-up in gorgeous slow motion, while "Where Youth and Laughter Go" feels like the soundtrack to a 60s Antonioni film. The spare "Distant Call" relies, initially, on Keegan's voice until it gives way to a lovely tonal melody in its second half. Elsewhere, the sweet and romantic "Locusts" also rubs elbows with a long, dissociated outro. Indeed, Broadcast indulges its instrumental side, with the thickly sonic "Hammer Without a Master" or the more melancholic "Chord Simple" (which only gets better when paired with "Unchanging Window"). For those who like tropicalia, "Daves Dream" is a curious confection. They also get to highlight some of their more experimental moments, like the strange feedback that infects the delicate "Small Song IV" or the random detritus of "DDL." And is that a 60's girl group piano-chord rhythm I hear in the background of "A Man for Atlantis"? "Belly Dance" closes the album on a driving note, leaning on Middle Eastern influences like it's playing beneath a _Laurence of Arabia_ battle sequence. My only quibble: no Two Lone Swordsmen remix of "Come On Let's Go"? For shame.

An absolute gem of an album, collecting together all their b-sides from recent years. These aren't your usual throw away tracks and filler, the tracks here are often stronger than the title tracks of the releases on which they origanlly appeared.
'Where Youth And Laughter Go' is a beauty, 'DDL' a bonkers little plaything and 'Belly Dance' a masterpiece.
A tidy collection for those who didn't get the multitude of singles and EPs released over the years.