Listening to Double Agent's latest sampler is like making selected stops in a musical time machine. When you hear My Favorite's faux-nostalgic "Absolute Zero" you'll be certain you've emerged sometime in the Flock-of-Seagulls-infested early '80s -- vintage synths, lightly reverb-brushed lyrics and all. It's a beautiful yet moody tune, perfect for those who dig other '90s-challenged bands like Satisfact or Joy Electric. My Favorite's other song, "Cult Hero, Come Home", gets just a tinge more punk with its hooky guitar riff, but evokes the same era. Unisex's "They Do Feel Strange" will have you seeing Liverpudlians with its British-invasion-leaning trappings. Is it rock? Is it pop? Is it Sergeant Pepper? What it is, is catchy and just a tad campy. "Smash It In Kick It On" has the same retro-modernness as Lenny Kravitz's work and is a bit harder than "... Strange". Dan Green ("The Sky Is the Limit" and "Critical Condition") is Smokey Robinson, or perhaps Marvin Gaye, certainly some displaced '60s Motown crooner trapped in the pits of this CD. Rose Melberg (one half of The Softies) mixes pop and folk to generate her tender "Golden Gate Bridge" while The Push Kings throw back to '60s pop in their own, less-perky-than-the-Partridge-Family way, similar to erstwhile Double Agent act Holiday. [Smooth] operator's song "Contractile Vacuole" is dreamy and Casio-influenced -- it's the most electronic song on the CD. Class has two tracks here, the more electronic "Sierra [Chasing My Dream]" and the less electronic "My Broken Heart". In true Class form, these tunes mix super-sweetness with almost-lethargy to create a particularly probing sound. Finally, Metronome's track "It's What We're In" has a Class-esque blend of acoustics and electronics and is hands-down the prettiest song on the disc -- very poignant. It reminds me quite a bit of stuff from Everything But the Girl's Amplified Heart.

I'm quite a fan of Double Agent's roster, so this compilation is a treat. Despite their disparate surface influences, at their core all of these bands share an unswerving dedication to pop...and beautiful pop, at that!