The Chills - Heavenly Pop Hits

The closest thing Martin Phillipps ever came to a hit, "Heavenly Pop Hit" was, of course, the track pegged to start this 1994 best-of, released on Flying Nun as a stopgap while Phillipps was between international record labels.

But there was plenty more where that song came from-- Phillipps was full of them-- and Heavenly Pop Hits: The Best of the Chills rounds up many of them for those who may not have any of the band's previous albums or collections.

From Submarine Bells there's the majestic "Part Past Part Fiction", while from the Chills' early days the set draws the irresistible shuffling tribute to a late friend "I Love My Leather Jacket", the piano-lead "House with 100 Rooms", the charming love letter "Wet Blanket", the catchy but bleak punch-the-clock welfare anti-anthem "Doledrums", and the ever-ghostly "Pink Frost".

All these tracks feature Phillipps' uncanny instinct for chiming guitars, humming organ, beguiling melodies, and mournful lyrics often utterly at odds with all the former elements.

Lest you forget, Phillipps, like nearly every songwriter of his generation, was a punk at heart, this comp tosses in "I'll Only See You Alone Again", "Look for the Good in Others and They'll See the Good in You", and "Never Never Go", three pounding, fuzzy garage-psych nuggets.

CD, Compilation

Tracklist:
1 Heavenly Pop Hit
2 I Love My Leather Jacket
3 Doledrums
4 Double Summer
5 Oncoming Day
6 Rolling Moon
7 I'll Only See You Alone Again
8 Never Never Go
9 Wet Blanket
10 Pink Frost
11 Kaleidoscope World
12 Look For The Good In Others
13 House With A Hundred Rooms
14 Part Past Part Fiction
15 Male Monster From The Id
16 This Is The Way