The Best Of The Boomtown Rats

Early Rats songs such as "Mary of the 4th Form" and "Looking After No. 1" clearly belong to the same punk-influenced soundscape as Irish contemporaries The Undertones and Stiff Little Fingers. What makes them different is Geldof's gift as a lyricist and more particularly as a raconteur, much in the style of classic David Bowie. "Rat Trap", credited by the Guinness book of hit singles as Britain's first New Wave no. 1, is every bit as much a slice of 1970s social commentary as Bowie's "Life on Mars", and even surpasses it with its frenzied piano, sax and guitar riffs and its defiance of the conventional rules of melody. Geldof's pinnacle as a storyteller came with the mega-selling "I Don't Like Mondays", the chilling true story of a schoolgirl who took a gun to her classmates and teachers years before the spectre of Columbine; but equally gripping is the less well-known follow-up "Diamond Smiles", the bitterly ironic tale of a suicide in high society. Underpinning all these tales are compulsive, addictive melodies and brilliantly controlled instrumentation from the other Rats.

What is perhaps most striking about all these songs is how they became clear predecessors of the "credible" rock and indie music of the next 25 years. Songs such as "Joey's on the Street Again" and "When the Night Comes" were clear forerunners of the soulful Celtic rock of Deacon Blue, Big Country and U2, while "Diamond Smiles" and "I Don't Like Mondays" clearly laid the emotional groundwork to which The Smiths were to lay claim for much of the 1980s. Other tracks have echoes of future indie-rock legends such as James ("Drag Me Down") and The Killers ("Someone's Looking At You"), while "Mary of the 4th Form" would give most of today's garage rock acts a run for their money.

By the time Band Aid came around, Geldof was all too well aware that the Rats were no longer cutting-edge. But in today's musical climate, their work has never sounded so fresh or contemporary.

Most familiar to all will be Rat Trap and I Don't Like Mondays, the two number one singles that were sandwiched between the Grease phenomenon and the advent of the Police. For a short period, The Boomtown Rats, and in particular, Geldof and Paula Yates, were foremost in the nation's consciousness.

Before this came some great songs such as Joey's on the Street Again, Looking After Number One, Mary of the Fourth Form, She's So Modern and Like Clockwork, which gave the Rats their early chart success, developing their craft to become chart toppers. Neon Heart, I Never Loved Eva Braun, and I Can Make It If You Can also come from that prolific period.

Post I Don't like Mondays, it could be said that the band started to lose affection from the public due in part to Geldof's celebrity. Diamond Smiles was released to indifference (possibly the weakest track on this collection), but there was the marvellous Someone's Looking at You and Banana Republic (Geldof's description of Ireland), before the Rats chart success went on the wane.

Nevertheless, the Rats continued to plug away and make some great music, including the fantastic House on Fire, possibly their greatest moment, which for some unknown reason is omitted from this collection.

In their last days, the Rats showed an impressive return to form with a great triumvirate of singles including Dave, a masterpiece that deserved a bigger audience.

Like any retrospective, it lacks some of the better album tracks (Howard Hughes, Kicks, Go Man Go), at the expense of some weak singles (Diamond Smiles, Never In a Million Years and Elephant's Graveyard), but that does not detract from the overall quality of this release.

This is an essential purchase for anyone who has enjoyed anything from the Boomtown Rats. For those who do not purchase their albums, it is probably the best way of listening to the greatest new wave band.

Any reason to not have this ? Not having a CD player is the only one I can think of!