VARIOUS ARTISTS
Greatest Irish Bands (Hip-O)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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Wow. 'Greatest Irish Bands.' That's a fairly big target, and one easy to miss, but this 13 track collection comes closer to hitting the mark than you might expect. Hard core aficionados of Irish popular music might think there are a couple of absent names worth including, but there don't seem to be any here that should be cut in favor of those others.

Starting off with the most successful Irish act in recent history (whether they're the 'greatest' is really a religious argument, and this is a music review), U2, and winding through a list that includes the obviously Irish (Clannad, the Pogues) and some whose origins you may have forgotten along the way (Hothouse Flowers, Stiff Little Fingers), there's tremendous stylistic diversity, but something nearly intangible makes the whole collection hang together in some kind of psychic unity.

Just in case 13 tracks of terrific music from the Emerald Isle isn't enough for you, there's also a bonus DVD disc carrying the short film "Sightings of Bono" offering yet another dimension of the contemporary world of Irish arts. But the tunes are really all it will take to fall in love with this compilation.

Track List:

U2/Where The Streets Have No Name * Thin Lizzy/Whiskey In The Jar * Sinead O'Connor/Nothing Compares 2 U * The Boomtown Rats/I Don't Like Mondays * Clannad/In A Lifetime * The Pogues/Fairytale Of New York * Stiff Little Fingers/Alternative Ulster * Rory Gallagher/Tattoo's Lady * The Cranberries/Linger * The Corrs/Breathless * Hothouse Flowers/Don't Go * The Undertones/Teenage Kicks * Van Morrison/Brown Eyed Girl

Bonus DVD Disc: Short Film: Sightings Of Bono

© 2004 - Shaun Dale