This week's top choice is a real value-for-money offering.  At first glance it's a double album of rare material and hard-to-find classics from one of Ireland's most consistently quality groups, but on closer inspection there's more here on offer.

If you read the inlay you discover that with the password printed therein you can download a whole extra CD's worth of material from the band's website, so that total's a massive 35 tracks for the price of a single CD . . . not bad at all.  But down to the music itself.

For fans of the Corkonian trio, this is a collection of great early nuggets from “Humphrey” through to “Pathways” combined with a couple of later b-sides such as “Pistons” and “An Elegant Chaos” which are unavailable anywhere (unless you know someone who has all of the band's early singles and EPs!).  Combined with these are a bunch of alternate versions of better-known tracks such as “How Can I Exist”, “New York”, and a lovely Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine) remix of “Take Me Through This Life.” There's a smattering of covers thrown in for good measure done only as The Franks could (their “Funky Cold Medina” is particularly entertaining), including a previously unavailable version of The Smiths classic “Cemetery Gates.” There are many live favourites in here such as “You Asked Me”, “Open Up”, and “Michael” and it's an indispensable record for any discerning lover of Irish music of the past 15 years or so.

For anyone who hasn't heard the band this consistent 2-disc compilation (3-disc if you download the extra material) is a good opportunity to pick up on just how good this band are when their b-sides are this good. As for that bonus album-download it consists of more rare tracks as far back as the great “Laurence Olivier” and “Angela Cray” amongst others, live versions of “Michael” and “Happy Busman”, and a gorgeous acoustic rendition of “Little Dolls.” All in all you'll be hard pushed to find another Irish album this year that will offer you so many great songs for such a moderate price tag. Some of the finest songwriters in the land show that even with non-album tracks, you can produce an album well worth listening to.