Various Artists

"One Child, One Family at a Time" CD

Too Bad You're Beautiful Recordings

Genres: punk, indie rock, indie pop

Nov 24 - 30 2003

One Child, One Family at a Time is a charitable punk and indie rock compilation organized by Too Bad You're Beautiful Recordings.  On it are eighteen songs by eighteen bands of which you'll likely at least recognize a few.  As for the songs, you get a real nice mixture of styles on this comp.  Some of the tracks are good, some aren't so great, as is often the case with this sort of comp.

The disc starts off in a punk vein.  Dumpster's instantly catchy "Cravin' Mild" is easily the best of the first five tracks here, although Dreams Forever Drowning's violently hardcore "One Defends the Other Conquers" is a sure second place.  Norway-based Twigs then introduces a more poppy approach to the disc with track six, "Phantonemesis," and Gann follows with Dylan-esque folk ("Everybody").  Polyvinyl band Matt Pond PA and Temporary Residence's Kilowatthours also contribute solid pop tunes.

This is a solid compilation with a good cause, and at only six dollars postage paid, it's a bargain.  Though often disjointed genre-wise, there's enough good stuff on this disc to make it worth the cash.

85%

Matt Shimmer

[Vitals: 18 tracks, distributed by the label, released 2003]