First of all, kudos to whoever was responsible for the overall track sequence of this mostly excellent and extremely diverse collection of music. The reason? There was really no need to skip past most of these tracks during my first couple of times through the disc, even though the 1-2-3 punch of My Morning Jacket, Death Cab For Cutie, and Imogen Heap late in the CD tempted me to go right to those tracks first. There are some minor issues with this compilation, but first comes the positive side of it.

A taste of the hit NBC drama series’ music starts off the disc, as both tracks one and two are compositions by the duo behind Heroes’ otherworldly and theatric music that accompanies many scenes of the show, Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman. Then comes a mix of mostly new songs by legendary singers and popular alternative acts who were sought out specifically for this compilation, along with some more of Wendy & Lisa and some new age-ish tunes.

Coming in at track three, the new Brighton Port Authority/Iggy Pop collaboration “He’s Frank” has an addictive, memorable organ line and some catchy staccato guitar chords, all of which makes for a great cover of a song originally done by an English post-punk band called The Monochrome Set from the late 1970s.

Elsewhere, country-tinged rock band My Morning Jacket’s new track “Chills” is soft and slightly spacious, but sleepy. It’s not bad, but they’ve had prettier and more memorable chill-out tunes than this one, which sounds more like a good b-side from their much acclaimed last record, Z.

As for the DCFC track "Jealousy Rides With Me," it may be new to some people but it was actually a bonus track on an import version of the band's 2005 album Plans. It's a light guitar ballad in the vein of slow tracks from their early records. In fact, the pace is so slow that, relative to the show, it could be the soundtrack to time slowing down. Lyricist/guitarist Ben Gibbard sings: “Jealousy rides with me/such a companion no one could be/for a journey that leads to the outskirts of time.”

The electronic pop genius known as Imogen Heap offers up warped beats on new track "Not Now, But Soon,” the enchanting sounds of which you could see being used to soundtrack Heroes character Hiro’s scenes. By any standard, it’s a very good song, but not her best, for sure. The newly released “Weightless” by Nada Surf, by contrast, is one of the best rockers I’ve heard by that group in a long time.