"Memphis’ Ardent Studios is one of the most respected recording facilities in the world. Everyone from Led Zeppelin to ZZ Top, from REM to Cat Power have made music within its hallowed halls. But despite the studio’s credentials, it is Ardent Records, the label, that inspires awe amongst pop aficionados, particularly as the imprint that begat pop cult heroes Big Star.

“Thank You Friends: The Ardent Records Story” celebrates with a deluxe two CD anthology that ranges from the label’s earliest mid-60s garage studio recordings to the halcyon days of the early 1970s, when a distribution deal with Stax established Ardent as a purveyor of the finest pop-rock. Memphis might have been the city where rock’n’roll was born, yet a significant minority of its youth in the late 60s and early 70s appeared besotted with the sound of British rock, inhabiting a Southern demi-monde where the Yardbirds and Who reigned supreme. The sharply-dressed Brit-pop aesthetic seemed integral to the Ardent modus operandi, adding a certain flash to even its most undemonstrative acts. It was also reflected in founder John Fry’s unerring commitment to technical quality, and the permission to experiment: Ardent was always more Abbey Road than McLemore Avenue."

From Phil Johnson's review in The Independent:

From pouting garage rock to psychedelia so anglophile that the accents recall Teddington more than Tennessee, and on to the pre-punk power pop of Big Star, this 2CD survey of cult Memphis label Ardent is so revelatory it's hard to listen to anything else. The first disc's selection of Sixties singles, including solo work by Big Star's Alex Chilton and Chris Bell, mixes sharp mod R&B with phased guitars, sitars, folk-baroque strings and art-rock lyrics. Disc 2 specialises in pre-punk cock rock and weird acoustic wastedness, with 12 Big Star demos and rarities. Compilation of the year, already.

Read more at the Ace Records Web site, or use the Amazon link below for purchase.