If you've come to the Pocket Gods recently, the main impression of the band is one that values quantity over quality. To an almost comical extent. And I'm completely down with that opinion. I simply don't have the patience to parse through the hundreds of songs the band seems to have released in the past few years.

The Pocket Gods Mimzicorn Invents a Time Machine (The Best of the Pocket Gods) (Nub Music)

Luckily, the boys themselves have picked out 20 of their favorites from the last two decades of Pocket Godage, and this relatively sparse set (which also includes intro and outro tracks) does the band a real solid. Within all of the recent chaff have been a few nuggets of joy, and that extends all the way back to the band's Madchester roots.

No matter what sound the band chooses to emulate, it does so with full self-awareness. And with that (very) loosely prog approach that permeates all of these songs. Even the odd sloppy punk raver wraps itself up tightly by the end.

The is no doubting the massive creativity that flows from the Pocket Gods. I just wish the guys would edit. This is a fine set, one that should help put the band solidly in the pantheon of eclectic pop monsters. I do wonder what might happen if the band would limit itself to, say just 20 songs a year. Ah, who am I kidding? The Pocket Gods are the Pocket Gods, for better and worse. There's plenty of both, but this set is a solid dose of the former.

Jon Worley