Consumer Guide Album

The Chills: Kaleidoscope World [Homestead, 1989]
"Eight Songs From Eight Members From Eight Phases of the Chills!" announces this '82-'84 singles comp, extensively annotated for the collectors it's aimed at. And unlike the mid-period Lost EP--next they'll construct an album from work tapes by Martin Phillips's pre-Chills Same--it doesn't bog down in horizon-stretching. These are simple pop songs by young people who are proud they can play them. They're slight, but they have the spirit. Best in show: the meaningless "Satin Doll," which Phillips wrote when he was seventeen--presumably for the Same. B+