Time Out London - Songs to define the city

Compilations showcasing musical scenes are no new thing – witness the abundance of Madchester 'best of' collections – but this compilation from Time Out magazine takes a different path. Rather than showcasing the finest talent London has to offer, it gathers a selection of twenty vastly differing tracks on the basis that the titles have some connection to the city or parts of it, and bundles them with a map and potted musical history.

As a result you shouldn't expect consistency of any sort. What you will get is a grab bag of varied music spanning over 40 years, some of which you're bound to like, but as a thematic collection it serves little purpose.

Look past this rather obvious deficiency and you'll find some absolute gems. The classics are well served by the Small Faces 'Itchycoo Park' (despite this famously having nothing to do with London), the Kinks magical 'Waterloo Sunset' and Gerry Rafferty's evergreen 'Baker Street'. You get a couple of pleasant folky outings from John & Beverly Martyn and the wonderful combo of Bert Jansch & John Renbourn that are worth a listen even though they're relatively niche.

Moving towards the present brings the lovely 'Bar Italia' by Pulp, showcasing jarvis' ability to present a gentle face despite dark subject matter, and the absolutely gorgeous 'London Belongs to Me' by St Etienne – an unexpected inclusion but one that goes a long way towards justifying the rest of the album. There's even a surprisingly pleasant if lightweight Jamie Cullum track, and Duffy's 'Warwick Avenue' provides a welcome mellow, soulful diversion.

Not everything is rosy though. Utterly forgettable tracks by Bowie, Simple Minds, the Pet Shop Boys and Roxy Music contribute little, Squeeze are far from their best with 'Piccadilly' and 'Soho Square' by Kirsty MacColl does little to honour her memory. The strangest inclusions for me are the Jam's superb 'Strange Town', Eddie Grant's irritating 'Electric Avenue' and the timeless 'Streets of London' by Ralph McTell – each of these tracks specifically tells you how terrible London is, and suggests that being anywhere else would be preferable. The PR team at Time Out might want to have a work with the compilers. Suffice to say there are very few tracks that actually paint a pleasant picture of the Smoke, and quite a few that have nothing to do with it whatsoever beyond the title.

So, in conclusion we have a mixed affair – when it's good it's very good, but there's a fair percentage destined to be skipped. If you forget the tenuous London connection (which is not difficult) it's not a bad selection and a decent way to fill gaps in your collection.