The Wayward Genius Of Martin Newell

Newell's catalog is so big that nothing less than a box set could serve as an adequate retrospective. This 21-song compilation, though, is pretty good, with 11 songs from his Cleaners From Venus days, three by his separate group project the Brotherhood of Lizards, and seven solo cuts. Whatever the source, his songs are consistently pleasurable, melodic, and lyrically witty and insightful — which is not the most common combination in pop music. And these songs are pop, of the very British variety, rather than singer/songwriter stuff, arty experimentation, or some such things. Drawbacks? Well, none of the original release dates or sources from which these were taken are listed, and even committed Newell fans might have a hard time placing where and when these songs originally appeared, although the booklet does include a very large discography. In addition, sometimes inferior versions of songs are used in cases where better ones appeared on his cassette-only releases. Still, it's a good collection, including some of his very best songs, such as "Living With Victoria Grey" and "Mercury Girl."