Hailed as a Stone Roses/Led Zep crossover band from West Yorkshire, The Music instantly captured the ears with Fierce Panda-released debut single Take The Long Road & Walk It. Signing to Hut, they proceeded to maintain their powerful, rock-orientated grooves to win a devoted audience.
This welcome 2-CD set pulls together all their singles and EPs released between their high gravity years of 2001 and 2005. The compelling guitar refrain of New Instrumental, recorded live in Leeds in 2001, showcases the band’s perfect chemistry, while Raindance and Karma now sound like anthems. Elsewhere, Life’s bold musical swagger has delightful echoes of The Cult, and the chiming simplicity of Getaway sounds like a template that The Delays based their entire sound upon.
Disc Two here is fascinating – especially three versions of Freedom Fighters. The original guitar composition is given electronic chatter by John Digweed and Nick Muir’s remix; while the Live Lounge Session recorded for Jo Whiley takes the song back to its compositional acoustic roots. It’s also interesting to compare the original release of The People from 2002, with the one filtered through the sympathetic Tetris prism remix of The Verve’s guitarist Nick McCabe.
