Acoustic Indie

Every great band possessed by that unquenchable indie spirit must, at some point, ask themselves this question — do my songs hold up if the guitars are unplugged and the drummer goes on a coffee break? Well, on the strength of this intimate and impassioned collection, the answer would appear to be yes. Catch Radiohead in all their formative glory with "Thinking About You" alongside Stereophonics' stripped-down, live rendition of "Just Looking".

Bombast is exchanged for finesse, in Next Steps.

You're an indie-fuelled meteor, on a trajectory of inspired destruction through the rockiverse. But every now and again you want to bring it down a few notches, and let your fans know there's more to you than blood and thunder. So you go acoustic. Those seasoned eardrum perforators, Foo Fighters, sound positively jaunty on "See You", while the Music — who tend to pick up a bazooka when a battering ram won't suffice — trip the melancholy-fantastic with "Inconceivable Odds".

Layering is key, over in Deep Cuts.

Just because a track's acoustic, doesn't mean it can't be all lush and swoonful — just check out the string-backed football anthem "World At Your Feet" by Embrace, which captures the inherent sadness of all latter-day World Cup campaigns mounted by England, or the reflective "Let the Wolves Howl At the Moon" by the ever-fabulous Super Furry Animals. Noah and the Whale works wonders with violin, mandolin, and the fragile human voice on "Shape of My Heart".

The acoustic track can serve a welter of purposes for the dedicated indie-head. It can allow a band that stakes its reputation on loud and often frenetic gruffness to come up for air and take stock of things (see how the edges are smoothed on the Wedding Present's "The Thing I Like Best About Him Is His Girlfriend"); it can also help an outfit connect to its inner busker ("Sofa Song" by the Kooks; the Raconteurs' "Steady, As She Goes"); or it can be the gateway to a whole new world of sound (check out the Shins' eerie, subaquatic vibe on "Black Wave" or the sonic snow-dusting of "Take a Chance" by the Magic Numbers). All of this adds up to one stellar unplugged selection.