"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.

Best Kept Secrets indeed...

I listened to Lamb for the first time a long time ago (1998-9), for the first and only time I saw their "B-Side" video on MTV. Back then it was one of the coolest things for me, the video and the song. Unfortunately this type of music isn't very popular in Mexico when groups like Portishead, Massive attack and Tricky are practically unnoticed. Since I'm a big fan of their music, I actually own all of the other CDs, but I couldn't resist on buying this one to get the DVD with their videos... Money well-spent

Best trip hop jazz fuision folk groups around!!

I discovered lamb about four years ago,what a suprise a strange fuision of jazz,folk,eletronic and triphop.Great vocals with tons of emotion If you like Billie Holiday,erikha badu,portishead,triky and etc,you will find lamb to be a journey of soul that in it's self is orginal.One of the best groups this decade,Very Under Rated!!!