AMG Review of Best Kept Secrets: The Best of Lamb 1996-2004

Johnny Loftus
All Music Guide

For old-schoolers, Best Kept Secrets is Louise Rhodes and Andrew Barlow's thank-you note. The U.K. electronica duo accompanies each track with personal reflections, letting longtime listeners in on some first-time knowledge. But for the considerable portion of the globe that never discovered Lamb, its 16 songs and six videos are signal flares in the darkness. From the comforting, romantic swirl of "Gabriel" (from 2001's What Sound) through the chattering beats, slurping bass, and cut-up strings of "B Line" -- what is it, hot jazz in the 23rd century? -- all the way to the outfit's relative "hit," the chilly '90s electronica boom nugget "Gorecki," Best Kept Secrets covers the Lamb bases for both the knowledgeable and the neophyte.