Here's a 20-song compilation from March and Darla, two labels with a reputation for putting out satisfying and inexpensive compilations. Highlights this time around include songs by Aden, Embellish, Kitty Craft, Her Space Holiday, Baxendale, the Flashing Lights and Mascott, whose "Costume Ball" sounds pleasantly like Stars, the band that produced it.

Barcelona, with Jen on vocals, also hits it big with "Studio Hair Gel", in which they reference everyone from Howard Jones to Robert Smith. If you don't own anything by Barcelona yet, they're a must -- their love for pop music is so immense that it smothers their songs and sweeps you away. I also have yet to see another band smile so cheerfully at the ceiling during a performance.

Another absolutely essential band, especially for Swede-o-philes like myself, is Labrador, here represented by "Waltz For Debbie". Besides Annica Lundbäck's lovely female vocals, Martin Permer's lyrics to "He Loves Anna" are as winning as Girlfrendo's ("He loves Anna/Big mistake/Cause she is no goddess"), while the keyboards soar with the finesse of Saint Etienne or the Pet Shop Boys. There is a great emotional current flowing through "He Loves Anna", too; geography helps their cause a bit better, as well, since emotional, catchy pop actually makes for Top Ten hits in Sweden.

As for the unimpressionable pop songs on this compilation, a few are inevitable, but it surprised me that two of them came from Club 8 and the Leslies, both of whom have made consistently superb music in the past. The Busy Signals and the Photon Band, neither of whom I remember hearing before, didn't impress me much either, but I give them the benefit of the doubt.

I think March and Darla have great taste; the ratio of bands they promote and bands that are great is almost 1:1. Also, having now heard enough of these compilations, I realize it's impossible to pass judgment upon a band on the basis of just one song. I did that earlier in the year with the Shermans; one month later, their full-length just blew me away.

Despite its twenty songs, Little Molly... seems to move faster than March's shorter Love Songs, and contains the best ratio of great pop songs on a disc since Sounds of Young Sweden or March's Summer Sampler '99. Make it six of the wisest dollars you've spent, and let's hope for more compilations of this quality from March's canine mascott, Molly.