The Clean, "anthology"

Punk rock exploded around the world like a nuclear bomb in the late 1970s, and while it might have taken a while, the blast radius eventually reached even such remote outposts as Iceland and New Zealand. In the case of the latter, the island nation's nascent punk movement offered its own shot heard 'round the world (or at least the South Pacific) with "Tally Ho!," the lo-fi 1981 debut single by the Clean.

By fusing the simple, chugging guitars of the Velvet Underground with the trashy organ of garage rock, the Clean inaugurated the tiny independent label Flying Nun and near instantly became a pronounced and lasting indie-rock influence. "Anthology" spans nearly 20 years of music, with the two-disc set collecting tunes from the band's inception to around 1996, beginning appropriately enough, with "Tally Ho!" "Anthology" then cruises through brilliantly poppy singles such as "Billy Two" and the bittersweet "Getting Older," plus hypnotic drones like "Point That Thing Somewhere Else," all sounding sharp as ever (and, in fact, often sharper, thanks to a good mastering job).

Disc two showcases the band's more streamlined sound around the time of its early '90s resurgence, when the group played up the strummy guitars and psychedelic keyboards on tracks such as the pretty "Secret Place" and "Do Your Thing." But disc one is where neophytes will get their most telling taste of the Clean, as the band careens through the first half of its career with two dozen wonderfully ragged but infectious singles, live songs, rarities, and EP tracks of impressive consistency, all fueled by the innocence of youth and the fuzz of distortion.