The Shop Assistants are one of the great UK indie bands of the mid-'80s, trailblazers of the sound that the Primitives and the Darling Buds would soon take into the college radio charts and an incalculable influence on an entire generation of indie bands that followed, from Talulah Gosh on down. "It's Up To You" is an anomaly for this band, who mostly favored little two-minute buzzbombs on the order of the early Jesus and Mary Chain. This is as close as they ever got to pretty, and I can't help but think that the folks on the quieter end of the Sarah label (Blueboy, etc.) paid a lot of attention to this song.

-Stewart Mason