Work and Non Work

This 1997 compilation gathers Broadcast's previously released singles and the entire BOOK LOVERS EP from 1996. It is an excellent primer of the band's beginnings, and plays like a well-sequenced album in itself, from the soothing, Satie-like opener ("Accidentals") and the groovy sunshine pop of "Book Lovers" to the jazzy, 6/8 "Message from Home" and the unsettling skating-rink waltz of "The World Backwards." The Stereolab comparisons that the band got saddled with in their early career are somewhat justified in this context, but even here the band exhibits a hypnotic, dazed quality--a gentler and yet more sinister vibe--that distinguished them from the very start.