I’ve written about my ongoing Billy Childish / Holly Golightly binge on the last few Saturday Playlist posts and haven’t come close to overdosing on them yet. When Down the Line hit eMusic on Tuesday I lunged for it. No need to check the samples or track down reviews. It was new Holly and I had to have it. I was certainly surprised when I gave it an initial spin. Turns out it’s not new material at all but a compilation of songs from her various Damaged Goods releases.

I tried to do some research after the fact but was stonewalled on all fronts. Nothing on AMG, the label page, or Holly’s own site. No reviews anywhere. Pretty mysterious. My best guess is that it’s an internet only release since the only places you can even purchase it from is eMusic and a few other, ahem, inferior online services.

I was definitely disappointed at first that it wasn’t a new album, all the more so considering her last release, 2005’s My First Holly Golightly Album, was also a comp. That one consisted of nine previously released songs plus eight re-recorded “favorites.” I can’t really recommend it because it downplays her rough edged garage-rock-blues material in favor of more pop leaning tunes. I always think of those songs as Nancy Sinatra style Holly, but that characterization is really only based on the one song I know, “These Boots Are Made For Walking.” Still, that song serves as an apt comparison for the type of 60’s influenced pop-rock that fills My First Holly Golightly Album. Not that the compilation is bad or anything. It just misrepresents her body of work and is titled to mislead neophytes into using it as an entry point for her catalog.

Down the Line makes up for those shortcomings. It is far more inclusive in its representation of the different styles Holly Golightly plays and fortunately does not overlap with last year’s collection. The first four songs alone demonstrate this broader range. “I Hear You,” with its heavy tremolo/delay lead guitar, starts things off with a touch of psychedlia. From there it’s the honky-tonk flavored “Dear John,” Ventures inspired “High Time,” and the smoky blue-eyed soul of “Here Beside You.” Elsewhere there’s the killer garage stomp of “I Can’t Be Trusted,” girl group pop on “She Said,” and a stark percussionless heartbreaker from her first album called “The Last Time.”

With fifteen songs clocking in at just over forty minutes, Down the Line is a perfect bite-size introduction to an artist who has released more than ten albums and countless singles. If you want to check out what she’s like, you wouldn’t be wrong making this your first Holly Golightly album.

Mono are a Japanese post-rock instrumental band whose epic songs follow the familiar trajectory of quiet gradually building to a distorted roar. Think Mogwai with double to triple the average song length. That description nails their essence but fails to do them justice. Mono are truly masters at creating beautiful, intensely moody music.

Take, for example, one of You Are There’s stunners, “The Yearning.” It starts out with two guitars playing melodies so stark they’re more suggestive than substantial. Things get a little meatier with some soft, melancholy strumming. Cymbals and an occasional pair of thudding drums slowly add to the mix. The volume increases over minor chords that threaten to gently tug your heart right from your chest until echo laden staccato notes send everything soaring into the tumultuous thunderclouds of distortion that have been steadily gathering overhead. There’s a sudden lull before a mighty rock eruption that might be described as giants smashing down a forest with boulders while being struck by lightning and swarmed by bees. After much destruction the giants, bees, and, uh, lightning tire themselves out and stagger to a rest. Mixed metaphors aside, “The Yearning” is pretty typical of the kind of music Mono composes.

You Are There, like Mono’s other work, is not for the casual listener. It demands patience and rewards undivided attention. It doesn’t work well as background music because without concentration the spare, quiet passages tend to lose interest. And since the longer songs build momentum as they progress, this makes the tail ends of the crescendos all the more jarring. Adventurous music fans willing to give You Are There full consideration though, even on a scattershot song by song basis, will travel on some remarkable sonic journeys.