Various: Yes New York

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * * *)

If you can make it there, a wise man once sang, you can make it anywhere.

That seems to be the attitude behind this compilation of New York's finest and jittery new rock outfits which may constitute much of the city's retro-New Wave scene in the wake of the Strokes and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Those two bands bookend this, the Strokes with a live-in-Iceland version of New York City Cops and the YYYs under alternative moniker Unitard on the Mazzy Star-ish Year to be Hated.

In between, Yes New York — its title a play on Now New York, a Brian Eno-produced late 70s scene-setter — delivers a fuzzy, furry, frenetic 16 tracks, many of which could be auditions to be NY's next big cool rock thing.

Some, like the very B-52s-ish Roger's Sisters and very New Romantic The Rapture sound less than the sum of their 20-year-old influences. But the likes of the Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Radio 4, the Walkmen and the Interpol make it sound like the excitement has just begun with the era's rock gangs of New York.

Label: Atlantic