LimeWire Music Blog

The lofty reputation of Glasgow recording studio Park Lane goes back to the early ’80s, when a host of the most exciting new bands on the Scottish scene did some of their earliest work there. The Park Lane Archives compilation could have merely offered well-known cuts by its dazzling client roster, but it does that idea one better by collecting previously unreleased tracks these artists made at the famed studio, including a wealth of demos and alternate versions. So the album performs double duty as a snapshot of the Scottish indie-pop scene of the ’80s and a treasure trove of rarities by some of Scotland’s finest. Over the course of 22 cuts, Park Lane Archives cuts a pretty wide stylistic swath; from the intense, moody, blues-flecked drive of Slide’s “Life of Our Own” to the classy, urbane, keyboard-led pop of Deacon Blue’s “Ribbons & Bows,” to the Beatlesque, harmony-kissed folk-rock of Del Amitri’s “Hammer and Peach.” Glasgow shines brightly with the rescue of these almost-lost gems from the Park Lane Archives.