  
On 21st October Universal music will be releasing the latest in their Classic album selection series. Previous releases include Motorhead and Thin Lizzy and like those releases this is a box set containing 6 classic albums from the band - in other words in this case it's all six of the band's studio albums. The six albums were released over a period of seven years and are "The Boomtown rats", "A tonic for the troops", "The fine art of surfacing", "Mondo Bongo", "V Deep" and "In the long grass".
As with other releases in the classic album selection series it's very competitively priced - £18.99. Thats just over £3 each for the six albums included in the collection, and when you think that you'll pay £12-15 for a typical new album then that makes this a bargain. Certainly if you compare it to the recently released compilation album "Back to Boomtown: Classi rats hits" it is a great deal - the compilation has one disc of 16 songs whereas this release has 88 tracks on 6 discs. The only thing you don't get with the Classic album selection is the two new songs "The Boomtown rats" and "Back to boomtown" but having listened to them I definitely think you're better off without them.
So the collection includes all six Boomtown Rats albums, but it also includes bonus tracks that were included in the 2005 reissues, so it really is an impressive collection for fans who don't have all the albums.
The band are best known for two of their five top ten singles ("Rat trap" and "I don't like Mondays"), but they also had a further six top 30 singles that didn't make the top ten. So if you only know them for the singles then is this collection going to be of interest? Personally I think it is - there's so much here for a low price that even if you only end up liking a dozen songs out of the 88 then thats still pretty good value. There are lots of good songs on these albums that have been overlooked really as people focussed on the hits. These days of course Bob Geldof is best known for his charity work (and strangely named daughters), and thats been the case ever since he organised the Band Aid single (Do they know its Christmas) and the Live Aid concert, but this release reminds people that he was first and foremost a musician who has released a strong catalogue of songs.
This is definitely a good release - six albums for a budget price means it's definitely worth a listen and there's plenty of good stuff on these albums to enjoy.
Track listings:
Disc 1 (The Boomtown rats):
1. Lookin' After No. 1
2. Mary Of The 4th Form
3. Close As You'll Ever Be
4. Neon Heart
5. Joey's On The Streets Again
6. I Can Make It If You Can
7. Never Bite The Hand That Feeds
8. (She's Gonna) Do You In
9. Kicks
10. Doin' It Right (Live Demo 1975)
11. My Blues Away (Live Demo 1975)
12. A Second Time (Live Demo 1975)
13. Fanzine Hero (Live Demo 1975)
14. Bare Footin' (Live In Dublin 1975)
15. Mary Of The 4th Form (Single Version)
Disc 2 (A tonic for the troops):
1. Like Clockwork
2. Blind Date
3. (I Never Loved) Eva Braun
4. Living In An Island
5. Don't Believe What You Read
6. She's So Modern
7. Me And Howard Hughes
8. Can't Stop
9. (Watch Out For) The Normal People
10. Rat Trap
11. Neon Heart (John Peel Radio Session)
12. Do The Rat (B-side) 2:11 Not Available
13. D.U.N. L.O.A.G.H.A.I.R.E (B-side In Ireland)
14. Rat Trap (Live In Stoke)
Disc 3 (The Fine Art of Surfacing):
1. Someone's Looking At You
2. Diamond Smiles
3. Wind Chill Factor (Minus Zero)
4. Having My Picture Taken
5. Sleep (Fingers Lullaby)
6. I Don't Like Mondays (Album Version)
7. Nothing Happened Today
8. Keep It Up
9. Nice N Neat
10. When The Night Comes
11. Episode #3
12. Real Different (B-side)
13. How Do You Do ?
14. Late Last Night (B-side)
15. Nothing Happened Today (Live In Cardiff)
Disc 4 (Mondo Bongo):
1. Straight Up
2. The Elephants Graveyard
3. This Is My Room
4. Another Piece Of Red
5. Hurt Hurts
6. Please Don't Go
7. Fall Down
8. Go Man Go!
9. Under Their Thumb Is Under My Thumb
10. Banana Republic (Album Version)
11. Whitehall 1212
12. Mood Mambo
13. Cheerio
14. Don't Talk To Me (B-side)
15. Arnold Layne (Recorded For TV)
16. Another Piece Of Red (Live In Portsmouth)
Disc 5 (V Deep):
1. He Watches It All
2. Never In A Million Years
3. Talking In Code
4. The Bitter End
5. The Little Death
6. A Storm Breaks
7. Up All Night
8. House On Fire
9. Charmed Lives
10. Skin On Skin
11. Say Hi To Mick
12. No Hiding Place (B-side)
13. House On Fire (12" Dub Version)
14. Up All Night (Long Version)
Disc 6 (In the long grass):
1. Dave
2. Over And Over
3. Drag Me Down
4. A Hold Of Me
5. Another Sad Story
6. Tonight
7. Hard Times
8. Lucky
9. An Icicle In The Sun
10. Up Or Down
11. Dave (Single Version)
12. Walking Down Town (B-side)
13. Precious Time (B-side)
14. She's Not The Best (Home Demo) |
