Britpop at the BBC - Various Artists (July 2014)

Amazon Product Description

In 2014 the BBC celebrated 20 years of Britpop with Steve Lamacq and Jo Whiley bringing back the Evening Session and inviting listeners to vote for their favourite Britpop Anthem. Britpop at the BBC features the public’s favourite Britpop anthems including the iconic bands of the era with a rare clearance of Oasis ‘ Wonderwall’ along with all the tracks that defined the genre Blur’ Parklife’ , Pulp ‘ Common People’, The Verve – Lucky Man, Radiohead – Creep, Paul Weller – The Changingman , Ash – Girl From Mars , Suede – Animal Nitrate.
Steve and Jo choose their favourite tracks from their time on the Evening Session uncovering forgotten favourites from Ocean Colour Scene - The Day We Caught The Train, The Divine Comedy – Something For The Weekend, Space – Female Of the Species, Elastica – Connection, Lush – Single Girla and Kenickie - Punka. To quote Steve Lamacq from the sleeve notes ‘Here you’ll find a whole array of bands; the mavericks and miscreants who made Britpop what it was’
CD 3 picks out highlights from the BBC archive of Evening Session recordings with exclusive unreleased live performances from Blur - Girls and Boys / Pulp – Lipgloss / Suede – Trash / Charlatans – One To Another and many more.

At a first look you think "wow, this is a mighty fine collection, after all there are 58 tracks, and it's at a good price and it's on Rhino Records, and they usually put together some fine sets", but, and it's a big but...it's actually a little deceptive because only Disc 3 is actually taken from the BBC Archives. 

It seems a few people who purchased it over on Amazon were  just a tad disappointed that the content of the first two discs is actually the singles or album tracks by the artists in question rather than the BBC Sessions from Jo Whiley and Steve Lamacq's shows.

Also there's a few questionable choices on it that don't really fit the Britpop label!

I don't usually have issues with such compilations but I do hate it when a product is not really what it says. Okay, maybe Rhino couldn't get authorization from the artists or even the BBC to use the music from the actual sessions apart from the 14 tracks that appear on Disc 3. Sticking the names of the DJ's on the Cover and the BBC logo almost gives off the impression that "we couldn't sell this 3CD set any other way, after all most lovers of Britpop would have the majority of this stuff already, but give it a fancy title of 'at the BBC' and throw in a bonus disc of actual music from the sessions and they'll come flocking to buy it!"...Okay that sounds a bit too cynical doesn't it? The price of the disc really isn't too bad considering what it isn't!

Anyway, despite the negativity there's actually a few good tunes on the set (Click on the links to enjoy the music):

Common People - Pulp.

Lucky Man - The Verve.

Going For Gold - Shed Seven.

Regret - New Order.

You're Gorgeous - Baby Bird.

Animal Nitrate - Suede.

Fine Time - Cast.

Lucky You - Lightning Seeds.

U16 Girls - Travis.

To name but a few.

There's another Britpop Compilation that's not too bad called 'Britpop Anthems' - 40 songs over 2CD's that's not bad value for money at £7.50.