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The latest release from the consistently inspired reissue label the Numero Group is "Yellow Pills: Prefill," a compilation of power pop from the late '70s and early '80s, curated by Jordan Oakes, who wrote the legendary Yellow Pills fanzine in the early '90s. I've never heard of any of the 19 bands on the 33-track, two-disc release (my youth and ignorance, coupled with Oakes' obscurist record collector geekiness), but I can't remember ever enjoying a compilation as much as this one. It's pure pop pleasure, from start to finish, and as good an argument as there could be that much of the best music is lost to history. It's also, in an interesting way, quite a timely collection, providing a sparkling counterpoint to the post-punk of the same era that, in its regurgitated form, is currently so ubiquitous. The quality of the songs is so consistently high that picking which tracks to feature was a fairly agonizing process. I settled on "Green Hearts" simply because it's been lodged in my head more persistently than any of the others. Stay tuned for another track from "Yellow Pills" tomorrow.
