Various Artists - 'The Mules Present - Pick Your Own' (Big Chill) Released 29/10/07

Ladies and gentleman, behold the compilation you need to carry with you when deciding who to indulge in for the next year or so. When it comes to acoustic/alternative acts, The Mules couldn’t have picked a better bunch to star in their various artists album, ‘Pick Your Own’. These days you don’t really get bands choosing who to feature on a compilation cd, usually some bunch of larger than life big-wigs who can’t tell The Fratellis apart from Grizzly Bear are in charge. So this is a breath of fresh, talented air. The contributors: We have Eugene McGuiness, Left With Pictures, Lightspeed Champion, Napoleon IIIrd, Emmy The Great, Fireworks Night and several other mind-blowing acts who lie in background of the UK’s music scene with a guaranteed ticket to adoration from thousands in the future.

As for the contributions: some songs are exclusive, some are old some are new. The date of recording doesn’t matter though, this is all relatively recent stuff and every song has plenty of positives to draw from. The Mules start things off, happy punk with varied instruments letting themselves go in the backroom – keep ‘This Is Your Life’ in your head throughout and you can easily find the similarities between each and every artist, all producing the same sort of atmosphere - easy to indulge in. The highlight out of the 14 track showcase is in-fact the closer. All tracks prior to Fireworks Night’s ‘Echo’s Swing’ are booming with energy, hinting at beauty but doing no more than that. However it’s when Fireworks Night go for the laid-back approach that we find the beauty we all sought somewhere in our listen. This tale is dark and threatening, laden with atmosphere, spirit and the ability to bring an appreciative tear to your eye from the very first listen. Words “She takes me out to a party, where the room is half-lit, and I’m dancing with ghosts, of people I love” give you the boost to either get up and soar or slump down and sob.

The next closest song to reaching ‘the beauty factor’ is ‘Say’ by Left With Pictures. Starting with playful keyboards only to be drawn into bells and soft vocals, every second the song progresses into something different and more pleasurable. Johnny Flynn and Eugene McGuiness pretty much reach the same level with their contributions, both with completely different sounds but somehow giving you the same warm feeling. As for the sweet acoustic bliss that everybody likes, Duncan Brown’s ‘Ah Sunflower’ provides the entertainment. Short but so, so sweet, male and female vocals stand together so confidently and elegantly you have to stop and pause just to appreciate it so it gets what it deserves. And it wouldn’t surprise me if Lightspeed Champion is the only name many people recognise from a first glimpse of the tracklisting. Not that he needs much of a boost to a successful 2008, but that probably wasn’t the compilation’s intention. Dev’s offering is, like most songs on the cd, priceless. Cautious at first but progressively more gutsy, lyrically and musically, it’s a song that tells a tale of annoyance, but it’s a track that is very unlikely to annoy you.

And please beware of Emmy the Great. The name has been scattering around via. the talk of music lovers alike, but now we have the next piece of music from her after her ‘My Bad’ EP. ‘The Catch’ is broody and defensive, tense and sturdy, always hinting at more but keeping the same mood throughout, it’s pretty lovely really. The Mules have giving us all a gift, so from now on, don’t dismiss any various artists cd which has their name in the copyright. This is quite simply an essential to all. And if you’ve only heard a couple of names on the tracklisting so far, you won’t be heckled by me and fellow music geeks – as long as you get this anyway.