The problem, of course, with any collection/compilation is that it only usually makes sense to the compiler. This isn't presented as a "Best Of...", which is just as well as there's no "There's A Reason", "Blue Robe", "The Fire", "Down On The Farm" or "The Scientist Writes A Letter", for starters. However, it is a way of releasing some of the tracks that Verlaine recorded for an album in London in 1986 and which never got a release.

It seems almost criminal that songs as good as "Anna", "Call Me The" and "Sixteen Tulips" could be rejected for an album release. "Anna", in particular, is a beautiful song and it's great to have these six songs released together. That stuff like this was being recorded and shelved at a time when we were drowning in a bland sea of Duran Duran and Dire Straights albums is appalling. The 80s - The Decade That Taste Forgot.

The live album, however, is a real treat. Recorded in London in 1982, it shows what a startling prospect Verlaine could be on stage. Taking the album tracks as a basic structure from which to deviate, Verlaine stretches out in some unexpected and inspired directions. I have to say that I was there and it was as good as it sounds - actually it was better than it sounds because what you miss on the recording is the sense of... well, danger, I guess, of wondering what was going to happen to songs that you knew so well. The band, which was Fred Smith, Jay Dee Daugherty and Jimmy Ripp, locks into the arrangements from the album versions, leaving Verlaine to go just about wherever he feels like going. Songs are opened up and stretched out into new patterns and rhythms - take a listen to "Clear It Away", "Always" and "Days On The Mountain". The sound is excellent throughout and the whole thing sounds like it was recorded yesterday. If there was any justice, of course, it might have been.

Turn it up loud.