Various artists

By and large, the concept of “various artists” releases seems to fall flat. It’s not a problem of the songs themselves as much as a problem of consistency. In other words, compilation albums seldom sound like albums, but rather like collections of disparate songs. This has not been an issue with Badman’s Shanti Project releases; each volume has displayed a sense of cohesion that overcame the disc’s various-artists nature, and the third such compilation is no exception. The Black Heart Procession, Sigur Rós, Califone, Arab Strap and Kinski each provided two tracks. The end result is quite simply one of the best CDs I’ve heard in a good long while: a moody, beautiful set piece for dreaming.