Kicking off inside the very heart of all-conquering, epochal madness and ending up with as much credibility as glow in the dark pacifiers and oversized pants, Madchester has become a sort of music historians' bastard child, licking all the hors d'oeuvres at the rock family reunion while everybody politely looks the other way. Compilations like Weekender, then, will surely piss many of them off. From the Stone Roses' seminal "Fool's Gold" to the Inspiral Carpets' heartrending organ glissando of "This Is How It Feels," from Northside proving their elated, underrated pigeon-hole ("Shall We Take a Trip") to a Blur before they went all faux-art dribbly on us ("There's No Other Way"), we're shown time and again what dance-inspired delirium can accomplish when it moves from acid's thumping house to the universal, occasionally inept alleys of indie. Sure, The Happy Mondays are inexplicably missing and, to be fair, most of this is decidedly crap -- but come on. When situated against the loyal retrospection of Brit-pop or the aggressive dirge of the New Acoustics, it has a certain sort of psychedelic shuffle, a kind of uncontrolled burn -- a reclamation for the right to mash your head in with narcotics, sex, and huge, huge tunes -- that all the important, even noble, movements need to have to be accepted into the gaping maw of music history. Flared jeans be damned. ~ Dean Carlson, All Music Guide