The whole idea of a sampler album is to open you up to bands that you may not have had a chance to listen to before, and more importantly, inspire you to then go out and buy their albums. The downside is that you are also quite likely to hear a lot of rubbish that you would not have had the misfortune to experience. Cherry Red will be pleased to know that this sampler is more an example of the former.

Six bands are given two songs each to win you over and are even put in alphabetical order to discourage thoughts of favouritism. Thanks to dates supporting The Strokes earlier this year, the sound effects meets pop merchants Stereo Total are probably the most well known of the featured bands. A particularly fine example of their work is ‘Musique Automatique’, which sounds like some kind of French/German 1960s spy thriller theme tune for a while, but then seamlessly breaks off now and again for a French country and western chorus.

The other bands featured tend to plough similar furrows – pop with an edge – with varying degrees of success. The Beck-esque cut-and-paste pop of Minnesotan Busy Signals starts off the album in superb manner with an ode to headphone-wearing girls that contains the so-simple-it’s-brilliant line “I never feel alone, with my headphones on”. Both contributions are fine examples of what pop should be like.

Another band that really impress are Athens, Georgia natives Masters Of The Hemisphere. Similarities to REM do not end with their hometown, as the vocals are very reminiscent of Michael Stipe. The stripped-down pop and melodic harmonies make for a very accomplished end product, and I for one would rather listen to this lot than the air rage guy and his cronies.

Japanese girl rockers Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her are above average but never really get you going, but the two tracks do make you want to hear more however so I suppose their work is done. Unfortunately, the remaining two bands bring down the album's overall rating. Peopletree featuring Milla Jovovich make quite interesting computer music, but their two tracks were apparently recorded late at night, ad-hoc style – and it shows. The rambling vocals suggest Milla should not give up the day job. The other band Imperial Teen, are a very poor man’s Dandy Warhols and sound too contrived to warrant interest.

As a whole the album is above average with some very good tracks. As a sampler Cherry Red have done well and there is enough on 'My Favourite Flavour' to make you want to search for more.