Delgados

These Glaswegians may have broken up, but that doesn’t belittle the mark they made on both music and the Scottish scene in general. But, this collection is quite hard to categorise as it’s not a greatest hits, due to covers, or even a career-spanning anthology, since songs from the underrated Hate aren’t included. Really, it’s a collection of sounds from a band that weathered many musical shifts, and, befitting the music and namesake sessions, it has an elegiac feel. The songs from the mid-’90s bounce with the alternative pop of the time, while the songs from their masterpiece, The Great Eastern, come off as timeless, especially the heart-rending "Make Your Move.” Indeed, it cements the simple fact apparent to anyone who saw them in the flesh: they were an amazing live act. All the songs brim with the promise of the times, whether the band were bouncing around with guitars or conducting their impressive strings. This is a fantastic collection for those who were fans, and for those who don’t know them, this is equally fantastic as a parting gift to a band that hardly put a wrong foot forward and were guided by a beguiling, innate sense of musical individuality. Like the titular Mr. Peel, the world is worse for their absence.