Various Artists

Whether you were/are secretly embarrassed for loving the likes of Paul McCartney & Wings’ Let Em In and the most MOR moments in the Fleetwood Mac catalogue or if you’re an out and proud fan of the coke-assisted soft-shoe shuffle where funk chugs down on its all-day hangover and says fuck it this is still a groove the thing for you – for now and all time – is this compilation. DJ Supermarkt is your guide as the good ship Yacht Rock sobers enough just enough to nearly do The Hustle.

From the magic of Rupert Holmes’ Deco Lady through to the new best break-beat ever that is David Batteau’s Spaceship Earth this compilation takes in some of the big, big names of the mainstream pop world – Chicago, Doobie Brothers, Christine McVie’s Sugar Daddy from Fleetwood Mac’s 1975 eponymous career do-over, even Nicolette Larson’s slam-dunk of Neil Young’s otherwise throwaway, Lotta Love – but it’s the rarer cuts, the surprises, the one you forgot or never knew – that offer the real magic. Robbie Dupree’s Steal Away,  Tony Joe White’s I’ve Got A Thing About You Baby, Don Brown’s Shut The Door – and a few other tracks that imagine the best aspects of the Bee Gees colliding with the worst aspects of Steely Dan. It all culminates in the only way it should/could – the Jan Hammer Group’s Don’t You Know. If you never did, or wish you hadn’t then you’ll certainly know – either way – by the time you get to the end of this album.

I think it’s glorious. A strange kind of wonderful. More than that, even – it feels like it could be a way of life. You feel milky-drink drunk just listening to this. All you anti soft-rock heathens can try and have a point elsewhere. This is a strange and beautiful exposition around disco’s quieter, more chilled moments. Brittle funk, clipped hi-hats, lovely synth lines, cool cooing BVs, swathes of bass and jinka-jink guitars. Make mine a double – and that could be referring, either, to this album or the next pre-lunchtime shot. I can hardly tell the difference anymore…