Even if you actually have heard (or heard of) most or all of these less-heralded albums and artists, the anecdotes, quotes and playlists within make for great cross-genre supplementary reading. As selective as it must be in order to have been whittled down to digest-size Rough Guide form (at least there's plenty of room for more volumes to follow!), and despite the inclusion of a few younger acts (mostly British, it must be noted) arguably too new to really merit early canonizing, The Best Music You've Never Heard is still an awfully close equivalent to browsing in (and picking the brains of the staff of) a deeper-catalogue CD shop such as, well, ourselves.