A study in diversity, The 20 Year Design Theory plays to the Attention Deficit Disorder clan by offering tracks from 14 different groups, with styles and recording skills as varied as one could imagine. Once you pass Gaffer's thrashing "The Stress Of Not Moving", you're moved (if not abruptly) into the melodic emo-styled rock of Kitchens and Bathrooms. There's more of the crashing and thrashing to come, however. If you're one of those people who appreciates indecipherable lyrics and all things head-banging, songs like "Monsanto" Perfecting The Disease V2.0" by Roads to Shiloh and "Social Skingraft" from Buried Inside should put a smile on your normally scowling face. For the more gentle souls, Picastro's "On February 2nd" by Raising The Fawn, Picastro's "Shorter Hard" and White Star Line's "Original Perfect Fit" should do the trick. If the compilation has a unifying theme, it has to be something along the lines of "we're all different, but equally mind blowing".

Compiled as a sort of starter course in current Canadian music, like most compilations with several genres running amok, The 20 Year Design Theory is not one of those discs that you'll sit down to listen to and love absolutely every song included (except for the previously mentioned A.D.D. folks). Don't let that keep you away from this one, though -- there's something for everyone here, and the fact that each inclusion is of such high quality pretty much guarantees that that the songs representing the genres you normally gravitate to will be winners.