Various Artists - Corrupt Postman (1988)

 
Never before or since has twee amateur hour (and a half) been so brilliant. Here we have a criminally obscure compilation on a criminally obscure label of some criminally obscure musicians and the Field Mice. Charming, coy, catchy, congruous, cathartic, clarion, cataclysmic, and much more, I would strongly advise against passing this gem up.

It's clearly blurred

The 6ths - Wasps' Nest (1995)

Before he decided to abandon synthesizers, before he decided to spend an entire album trying to be the Jesus and Mary Chain, and before everyone fell in love with "69 Love Songs", Stephen Merritt was just content to write charming and witty synth-based pop songs. While the Magnetic Field's first five albums (from 1991's "Distant Plastic Trees" to 1995's "Get Lost") are almost unparalleled in terms 90's Indie Pop, Merritt was extremely prolific, not only working with the Magnetic Fields, but also with Future Bible Heroes, the Gothic Archies, and this project - the 6ths. While most of the Field's albums post-"The Wayward Bus" featured just Stephen singing, up until 1999's "69 Love Songs", the 6ths takes a markedly different turn, with Stephen still handling all the lyricism and songwriting, but recruiting some veritable indie greats to handle the singing - Mary Timony of Helium, Lou Barlow of Dinosaur Jr, Georgia Hubley of Yo La Tengo, and probably my favorite feature, Amelia Fletcher of Talulah Gosh and Heavenly!

advantage Lucy - Have a Good Journey (1996-2000) (2000)

advantage Lucy (Originally Lucy Van Pelt) is a Japanese Indie Pop band that gathers influences from pretty much every feel-good genre there is, from lounge to jangle pop to alternative rock. In 2001 they released the compilation album "Have a Good Journey (1996-2000)" reuniting tracks from all of their albums and EPs released up to the year 2000 including their Lucy Van Pelt stage.

What separates this compilation from most Indie Pop compilations or from all Indie albums in general for that matter is that advantage Lucy has effortlessly pulled off what most Indie Pop bands don't achieve in their entire career; the natural ability to write compelling and short pop songs that don't feel manipulated or forced in any manner. advantage Lucy achieved fullness in a very pure yet varied form, not a single moment on this compilation is wasted, there is always a new musical idea waiting to put a smile on our faces. Whether it's the sharp and simple guitar leads from "Sora Wa Ugokazuni" or the electronic stunts of "Sunny", the semi-heavy guitar rhythms of "Citrus" or even the bitter-sweet whisperish vocals of "Nico" we are never deceived with even a single moment of empty space or "filler" in any of the songs' structures. The vocalist's work was especially refined and soothing, a definite highlight of this compilation, it's amazing how she can quickly change and change back from singing lyrics to wordless vocals like on the track "Citrus", there is an obvious vocalist-band chemistry that I personally can't get enough of. The last three tracks of this compilation are specially stellar, my personal favourite was "Frizz Pop", this track just sums up the whole album for me, it starts with an angry distorted guitar and quickly moves in into these gorgeous sugary vocals very á la Stereolab, then a flute comes in to complement this song, giving it a really funky-feel and putting an ironic point at the end of every verse the vocalists sings, and then the song finishes in a very humorous manner.

advantage Lucy is an example to follow for all Indie Bands and not only J-pop bands, an enormously entertaining compilation that deserves to be replicated.


"It's so funny, it's so sunny, it's so lovely, it's so funky"

Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 - Lovelyville (1991)

Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 was a band which emerged from California in 1985. They could best be described as "Experimental Indie Rock" or perhaps Noise Rock, personally I like the term "Indie Rock on cocaine." Their album Lovelyville was released at the band's peak in 1991. Combining elements of Indie Rock and Noise Rock, even with some strange sound collages thrown in. The album even perhaps includes aspects reminiscent of 70's Psychedelic rock and Post-Rock, a few songs, like "Nail in the Head," have segments that, if they had been played by a band like Do Make Say Think, I wouldn't raise an eyebrow. Most of the songs on the album start as standard Indie Rock songs and proceed to degrade (or perhaps upgrade) to a hectic clamor of instruments. Some turn into a more repetitive and slower Post-Rock-esque ambient tracks. A lot of  the tracks on Lovelyville has a very powerful feel to them, they sound massive, but for as many massive songs there are equally melancholy and depressed songs, like "Nothing Solid" which, despite the screaming vocals, still sounds very mellow, and frankly, sad. And on the other spectrum Maverick and the next two tracks following it are just playful clips of the band messing around. Really the whole later parts of the album after what was probably my favorite track, "Nothing Solid," takes a large turn for the weird. "The Meat Display" especially is interesting, but the track that follows, "Strife is Good," is a plain eerie song which turns into distorted and painful sounding cry of "ow!" The whole ending tracks of the album are quite a trip, and the album ends on a rather ambient, melancholy, droney note.
All in all the album is magnificent, quite astray from most Indie Rock being released at the time, in a very good way. For those who didn't like Caroliner because the band just seemed too bizarre, but at the same time were interested by some of the aspects in their music, this band is certainly something you might want to look into. Even then regardless of what you like you should certainly give this hidden gem a shot.

See that guy, he's a lot like me, he's a lot like me, he's dumb as hell 
See that guy, he's a friend of mine, he's a friend of mine, he's dumb as hell