It’d be slightly too much to say that the success (critical or commercial) of the Canadian music industry rises or falls on what happens with the Arts & Crafts record label, but they’re pretty damn important – of that there can be no doubt.

It’s ten years since Jeffrey Remedios and Kevin Drew (of Broken Social Scene, the collective inextricably linked with A&C) came together with the initial aim of being an outlet for BSS releases, and then became something much, much more. First there was the releasing of records from the various BSS affiliates (Stars, Feist, Jason Collett), then came the outsiders – The Most Serene Republic, The Hidden Cameras, Dan Mangan – still Canadian, but then joined by Wales’ Los Campesinos! and branching out to worldwide distribution of various non-Canadians. Alongside fellow Canucks Constellation Records, they’re responsible for some of the best music (never mind Canadian music) you’re likely to have heard in the past ten years. And with Arts & Crafts: 2003-2013, you can hear the best in one handy package – some of it truly excellent.

This compilation, of tracks from 2003-2013, captures what’s utterly brilliant about the A&C roster by mixing the hits with rarer tracks, giving perhaps the definitive overview of the Canadian music scene of the past ten years. It’s only right and fair that proceedings are kicked off by BSS and the wonderful ‘7/4 (Shoreline)’; it remains a thrill eight years down the line, a rock steady bassline underpinning the band’s usual chaos as Leslie Feist’s vocals add a sweet counterpoint to Drew’s love-it-or-hate-it (love it, of course) boyish whine. We already knew of the prowess of BSS by then, but this showed just how brilliant they really could be. Of course they could only be followed by the other band that made the label: Stars. ‘Elevator Love Letter’ is everything that’s wonderful about the band when they’re at their peak, from the giddy singalong nature of the song to the honeyed vocals of Amy Millan, who, of course, is represented by two of her own wry solo pop efforts. It’s a shame, then, that the strong opening is let down by the appearance of Zeus with their hoary southern rock song ‘Are You Gonna Waste My Time?’ It stands out like a sore thumb against what comes before and after and they remain a curio in the A&C roster. That brief dip is rescued by The Stills’ anthemic ‘Being Here’, a reminder of what could have been from this sadly departed lot if they hadn’t made the dreadful error of ever releasing the awful Without Feathers as their second album.

This wouldn’t be a review of an Arts & Crafts compilation without a mention of Feist, and here she’s represented by the still-beguiling otherworldliness of ‘Mushaboom’ and the rousing ‘I Feel It All’, plus duetting with Constantines on their amusing cover of ‘Islands in the Stream’. A&C still get the honour of releasing Feist’s music in Canada, and that says as much about what she owes to the label above anything else. Let It Die was one of the records that allowed the label to do so much more than they ever though possible, but around the same time a couple of unfairly overlooked records – from BSS associates Jason Collett and Andrew Whiteman (aka Apostle of Hustle) – did just as much to give the label the critical (and commercial) acclaim it deserved. Collett’s brilliant indie jangler ‘I’ll Bring the Sun’ is a stunning song from an excellent record (Idols of Exile) and he also contributes an unreleased gem in ‘False Cassandra’. Meanwhile, Apostle of Hustle adds some worldly musical influences to his BSS bounce in tracks ‘Folkoric Feel’ and ‘I Want a New Drug’.