VA - The Sun Shines Here: The Roots Of Indie-Pop 1980-1984 [3CD Box Set] (2021)

The Sun Shines Here: Roots of Indie Pop 1980-1984 is a sequel of sorts to Cherry Red's 2013 release Scared to Get Happy: A Story of Indie Pop. The three-disc set delves a little deeper into the early years of the sound, showing how post-punk evolved into something that could be a little brighter or more melodic, while still staking out tonal and rhythmic territory outside of the norm. While there are quite a few groups that appear on both collections, the extra space here gives the compilers more room to tell the story and uncover a wider range of bands this time that ranges from important (the Teardrop Explodes) to totally forgotten (the Cinematics). There are a variety of sounds and styles represented, enough that one gets a clear picture of just how fragmented the music scene became the further away it got from punk. Contrast the slick jazz-pop of Weekend with the hard-charging mod pop of the Laughing Apple, the lo-fi frug of the Mo-Dettes with the rollicking cabaret punk of Ludus, or the dubby new wave of the Lines with the sophisticated pop of Pale Fountains to see how very different the bands could be. They are drawn together by an abiding love of a good melody and the desire to make music that didn't follow trends, but rather seemed dead set on starting them. At least that's the case on the first two discs of the collection, which conclude in early 1983.

After that point, there seems to be a slight codification of the scene into more straightforward, '60s-inspired pop of the kind made famous by labels like Creation. Of course, there are exceptions (like Swallow Tongue's amazing avant-funk take on the Jackson 5's "Got to Be There"), but all the groups here are guided by the twin deities of jangle and fuzz, knocking out brilliant songs that burst out of the speakers like glimmering rays of the sun (Hurrah!'s "Hip Hip," the Suede Crocodiles' "Paint Yourself a Rainbow") or leak out like bitter tears (Revolving Paint Dream's "In the Afternoon," the Pastels' "A Million Tears"). It makes a compelling case that 1984 was one of the great years for indie pop and brings the set to a thrilling, if less adventurous, conclusion. As with Scared, there are a few big bands missing, but it's hard to bark too much about that when what is actually here is so enjoyable. The one complaint that might stick is that each year covered here could have been expanded to three discs each; the music taken from each year is so good and so much fun to discover and/or revisit that one is left wanting more to hear and discover.