Broad anthology of girl group rarities

There’s little to fault in the research and production put into this set, but the breadth of collected works and the focus on rarities makes this the province of collectors rather than casual fans. Every track included here is likely the favorite of someone, but few have the global appeal of the era’s hits. The difference between a hit and miss may be razor thin (and at times circumstantial rather than artistic), but at 120 tracks, the back-to-back obscurities will really only hold the attention of aficionados who’ve internalized the genre’s flagships. Plaudits are due the set’s producer, Sheryl Farber, for pulling this set together, getting the clearances and documenting each of the tracks with notes (by Cha Cha Charming‘s Sheila Burgel), release data, label reproductions and photos. But it’s hard to imagine regularly listening to these discs beginning-to-end, or in place of hit-, label- and scene-based anthologies, group best-ofs or original albums. The mixture of Brill Building pop, Motown soul and British productions may be a fair representation (though where’s the non-English cohort?), but the combination is likely to leave less fanatical listeners pining for more of one and less of the others. The rarity factor is a great lure to collectors, and while casual listeners will discover a few new favorites, they’re likely to find the overall mass to be ponderous. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]