They Were Such a Fine Bunch of Stiffs

VARIOUS ARTISTS

“The Stiff Records Box Set”

Rhino

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Nick Lowe made almost flawless power-pop in the ‘70s, music whose melodies charmed and whose frisky lyrics teased. . . . The Damned earned a place in rock history the same decade by being the first British punk group to tour America. . . .

Ian Dury made some of the wittiest and most idiosyncratic records of the ‘70s--tunes, like “Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll” and “Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick,” that celebrated the kind of scruffy, offbeat persona that Tom Waits turned into an art form. . . .

And Elvis Costello--well, everyone knows that he wrote songs in the ‘70s, from the tender “Alison” to the anxious “Watching the Detectives,” that were so marvelously crafted and frequently sophisticated that he was called the Cole Porter of rock.

What do all these artists have in common? They all recorded for Stiff Records--an independent English label that almost single-handedly launched the New Wave movement that rallied against the faceless, corporate tendencies of ‘70s rock.

Founded by Jake Riviera and Dave Robinson, Stiff championed artists that the major labels had overlooked or rejected--a list that eventually included Madness, Devo, Rachel Sweet, Kirsty MacColl, Tenpole Tudor, Tracey Ullman and the Pogues. The company’s focus, reflected in both the music and in its colorful promotional materials, was on the playful and the passionate.

This four-disc history contains 96 selections, which may sound like far more than you need to hear. But most of the tracks are appearing on CD for the first time, and listening to them over the course of almost five hours is a source of frequent surprise and almost constant delight.

It’s rare that record labels, rather than simply artists or musical genres, command allegiance in pop, but various independent companies have done just that--from Sun and Chess through Stax and early Motown on to Sub Pop. Stiff belongs in that select group.