Various ★★★★ Bills & Aches & Blues 4AD. CD/DL/LP
Self-starting 41st anniversary celebration from pioneering label.
THIS RECORD’S concept is simple: artists on 4AD’s current roster cover tracks from the label’s past. When Bills & Aches & Blues works – and it nearly always does – it’s more complex, though, pulling together the threads of an enduring artistic legacy to intriguing effect. US Girls, for example, take the malign buzzing energy of The Birthday Party’s Junkyard and trap it under a glassy dreampop dome, while Tkay Maidza deftly trepans Pixies’ Where Is My Mind? It’s interesting to see who is chosen: no Cocteau Twins (although SOHN cover This Mortal Coil’s version of Song To The Siren), but a strong showing for Grimes, Deerhunter and The Breeders (the latter covered by TuneYards, Big Thief and Bradford
Cox). Profits from the record go to Los Angeles-based charity The Harmony Project for the first year, but as birthday celebrations go, this is a welcome gift for all. Victoria Segal