Consumer Guide Album

Shoes: Best [Black Vinyl, 1987]
Starting with the most ironic label name ever entered in the digital sweepstakes (Coated Aluminum just wouldn't sound as homy), this compilation is quintessentially problematic. Fine bit-by-bit, with worthwhile bonus goodies (especially the four from the import-only Silhouette) and unexceptionable sequencing and selection, its generous length places an impossible burden on these quintessentially slight popsters, reducing them to the light background entertainment those with no tolerance for fragility thought they were to begin with. Who but their moms and their girlfriends (especially their girlfriends, some of whom I hope are wives by now) want to concentrate on such fragile virtues for an hour and a quarter? B+