Brando's the Adder is a must-have for the brooding, the misunderstood or the quirkily complex individual. The Adder covers Brando's work from 1994-1997; it's a lo-fi experience that sounds rather like a party at which the likes of Lou Reed, the Cowboy Junkies, the Beach Boys and the Cure all inhale fragrant marijuana smoke and munch on magic mushroom hors d'oeuvres. The first half of the album all is ethereal sweetness and vulnerablity, starting with "Wonderful," a geeky march full of grasping admiration based on a Buddy Holly blueprint. "Starvation Soup" introduces Brando's break with light, floating sounds and puts them in Crash Test Dummy territory. "Honey" has glam rock pretensions and bravura but in Brando's hands it's a smart and coy come-on.

The Adder, by starting softly and ending with a few sonic outbursts ("Turning" and "Lexington was Burning"), may be jarring to those who prefer their CDs to have a consistent musical tone throughout -- but it is, after all, a compilation, and a great roadmap of where Brando have been and could be heading.