It doesn't happen that often - and now in the winter of the album format, it could happen even less - but occasionally a song compilation can give shape to something unique and nameless. It has to pull together strains of music that are emerging or are bubbling below the surface and give it a narrative thread. Put together, the songs show a similar focus or sound, similar lyrical themes or vocal delivery, some series of events that lock onto one another. Movements are born this way; moments are documented.
In the thick of 1986, the become a member or log in.
