Worried Noodles started as a book, a conceptual collection of amusing, disconcerting song lyrics without music, penned by British artist and illustrator David Shrigley, who offered this explanation: “It was easier not to make a record.” In the past, Shrigley’s deceptively child-like drawings have adorned magazines, art galleries, and the assorted album covers of Deerhoof’s Friend Opportunity; but now his words adorn songs by a motley mixture of known and unknown musicians, from David Byrne, to Islands, to MIDI-mastermind Max Tundra, to DIY-renegade R. Stevie Moore, to inspirational singer Roger Ferguson, filling a generous 2 discs and 39 songs. The most surprising part? Everything sounds cohesive even across wide-ranging genres and I tend to actually want to listen to the whole thing as an album, rather than jumping to specific, preferred singles and bands as with many other compilations. Even Franz Ferdinand (old Glasgow friends of Shrigley) manage to fit right in between Cotton Candy and Alig Fodder (despite adapting the same song as Hot Chip) and Les Georges Leningrad manage not to be irritating. I guess making a record proved not too difficult after all.

• Multiple songs MySpace