THE LOST ATTIC - A COLLECTION OF RARITIES (1983-1999)

IQ's The Lost Attic is precisely what it claims to be - a rarities collection - and as such like most rarities collections it aims directly for the "fans and collectors only" category rather than anything better. With tracks taken from various sources ranging from the band's home demos to the Subterranea sessions, the sound quality here is decidedly variable.

Some songs are fairly reasonable - Apathetic and Here, I and Hollow Afternoon are decent pieces (the former having been recorded for a tribute album to the late Geoff Mann, a friend of the band) - and the concluding radio session tracks are pretty good, but for the most part this is a jumble of rejects and alternate versions which will only be of interest to IQ fanatics.

For instance, The Universal Scam and Wintertell are both rejected songs from past albums (Subterranea and Tales from the Lush Attic respectively), and in both cases I'm left with the impression that cutting them out was 100% the right call because they just aren't up to the standards of the other songs from the relevant releases. Most of the alternate versions of tracks here are simply inferior to the versions IQ fans will already be familiar with. And as for My Legs, all that goes to show is that the band had too much time on their hands one afternoon in 1983, creating a "comedic" play which could only possibly be funny if you happened to be there at the time.

It's not a one-star washout, because IQ fans will probably treasure a few pieces on here, but I suspect even they will find themselves drawn to a subset of the tracks on here; this isn't an album which is at all interesting or entertaining to listen to from beginning to end.