(Rhino/Warner Music)

The idea that you can sum up British music from 1984 to 1999 on four CDs seems a bit laughable, but the compilers of The Brit Box have done a surprisingly thorough job of it. Subtitled UK Indie, Shoegaze, and Brit-Pop Gems of the Last Millennium, the set includes exemplary songs of each style, chronologically arranged. Thus, we get the pioneers (the Smiths, the Cure, Cocteau Twins, Echo & the Bunnymen) and the Madchester ravers (Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets) on Disc 1, the shoegazers (Ride, My Bloody Valentine, Chapterhouse) on Disc 2, and various exponents of the Britpop explosion (Blur, Oasis, Pulp, Elastica) on the last two discs.

Apart from a few glaring omissions (Radiohead) and a couple of puzzling inclusions (Hurricane #1, the Blue­tones), The Brit Box is a well-chosen collection, making it ideal iPod fodder for nostalgic Anglophiles who can't be bothered to dig out their worn-out tapes from high school, not to mention anyone who left a record collection behind when crossing the pond from Old Blighty. Oh, and did I mention that the box is shaped like an old British phone booth, and lights up from within? That'd look pretty cool sticking out of someone's stocking.