I may be biased as a long-standing fan, but it's a measure of my own love of the Beautiful South that despite already owning every track on this collection, I bought it anyway.
Even if you only know the singles, you're getting more than your money's worth. On reflection it's a curious collection, since it's not all that long since their second greatest hits collection Solid Bronze came out. What the Beautiful South have done here is to pack some of their best 'unknown' songs in among the hits to make a must-have collection. Classic album tracks like One God, Property Quiz, Alone and Masculine Eclipse really deserved a wider audience than hardcore fans, and here's a chance for everyone to sample just what makes the Beautiful South so good.
The timing may turn out to be astute, with the release of new album Superbi in May 2006, and I repeat the essential point of this review. Gold is simply outstanding value for money, and if someone who already owns all the songs is telling you that, you can't really quibble, can you?