Best kept

Lamb is an outstanding trip-hop band. Come on, admit it -- their music is beautiful, polished and textured, and it's a sign of the world's unfairness that people like Celine Dion outsell them. But I digress. "Best of Lamb 1996-2004: Best Kept Secrets" is a surprisingly good look back on the history of... well, one of electronica's best kept secrets.



A lot of "Best Of" albums stagger under the weight of personal preference -- meaning that the fans keep asking "Where is...? What happened to...? How could they not include...?" I didn't feel that way when listening to these sixteen chronological songs. While most Lamb songs are beautiful, these songs do a good job of showing their evolution from rough trip-hop to smooth, almost jazzy electronica.



The self-titled debut was a mix of the epic and rock-y -- "Cotton Wool" and "God Bless" are superb percussion-pop song with some trip-hop edge. "Best of Lamb" starts off dark, but gets... not exactly light, but more upbeat and less sprawling. One exceptional example is "Bonfire," a passionate, sweeping song that perfectly showcases Louise Rhodes' beautiful vocals.



Their style changed even more later on, moving further from their debut and into the realm of purer trip-hop -- less orchestral, less rock-y. "Gabriel" is a pretty song, and "Angelica" a gentle trip-hop-piano melody. They took that sound even further, and it's reflected in the finale of this album -- the trippy "Stronger" and the airy "Wonder."



It's definitely a good place to investigate if you're a Lamb virgin. If you have all four albums, however, it won't yield much that's new to you. But it's also a pleasant capsule look at their evolution as a band -- they started off sprawling and dark, and have (so far) become much jazzier and airier. Some of the song choices are a little obvious -- "Gabriel," for example, which apparently is a hit among romantics.



Lamb will probably never break into the No. 1 slot -- although stranger things have happened -- but their songs remain rich and beautiful, no matter which album you listen to. And as an introduction, either to the band or to albums you don't have, this is a pretty good one.

Music this good shouldn't be a secret

I only have one Lamb album, Fear of Fours, but this compilation certainly makes me wish I had more. And isn't that the point? At 1 hour 11 minutes, the disc is a bit long. But as an introduction to their work it works really well, offering a range of their version of trip-hop/electronica and the evolution of their music from more intense to more mellow and melancholy. And unlike many best of albums which can be an uneven gathering of hits in which the sum is less than the total of the individual parts, this disc works well as an album in and of itself. Their 4 albums are about equally represented with about 4 songs each. The bonus DVD of 7 videos (6 of the 7 appear on the cd) is quite good too and will make the album more attractive to people who already own all of their albums since all the songs have been previously released.

This aint the best

If I had done this compilation I would have made the track listing look like this.



1-God Bless

2-Trans Fatty Acid

3-Gold

4-Gorecki

5-All In Your Hands

6-Bonfire

7-Lullaby

8-One

9-Sweet

10-Scratch Bass

11-Wonder