It's not really all that surprising that Mclusky disintegrated last year. A band this bizarre and off-the-wall was never disposed towards stability and growing old gracefully, and it's probably for the best that they went (relatively) quietly when they did rather than turning into a parody of themselves, repeating the same antics and shenanigans long after they were no longer funny. That the band never really got the attention that they probably deserved is disappointing but not surprising, can you really imagine a band with a song entitled "Dave, Stop Killing Prostitutes" appearing on "Video Hits"?

For those of us who found such song titles amusing rather than offensive however, the breakup of the band leaves us with the dilemma of how we're going to get our future Mclusky fix. After all, there aren't very many other bands out there who have got the same mixture of indie rock and punk rock together, with the dashes of grindcore, art-rock, and pure chaos that Mclusky had. That's why this three-disc collection, which not only contains some of their better-known A-sides, as well as a selection of B-sides, demos, and live tracks, will come in so handy. With so much material (fifty-six tracks over three discs), we should all be set for years, right?

Well, yes and no. The first disc, which has the better-known tracks, is probably the most consistent in terms of quality. Kicking off with the filthy garage punk of Joy, it softens you up with a barrage of short, aggressive barrages of noise, such as Rice is Nice and Whoyouknow. It isn't until track five that some subtlety and complexity arrives in the form of To Hell With Good Intentions. It's still not a gentle song, but together with tracks like Without MSG I Am Nothing and Alan Is A Cowboy Killer, which both show that the band could knock out a decent tune when they needed to. And then, of course, are songs like She Will Only Bring You Happiness, with its infamous "our old singer is a sex criminal" sing-along, which puts a smile onto my face, every time.

Much more interesting are the other two discs though, which go into the band's back catalogue and dig out some of the more interesting stuff. The band were hit-and-miss at the best of times, so the twenty-two B-sides crammed onto disc two can't be expected to be as cohesive as the first disc, but there are still some interesting moments on here. Rock Vs. Single Parents and The Habit That Kicks Itself are both as strong as the songs on the first disc, and there are a few other interesting moments scattered about as well. Of course, there's a lot of complete crap as well, but given that most of these songs are only around two minutes long, it's pretty easy to just put up with the filler until something interesting comes along.

Disc three delves into demos, live recordings, and other oddities. These "C-sides" will only be interesting to dedicated fans of the band, and some of them are a bit weak. I mean, did we really need to hear a slower version of KKKitchens, What Were You Thinking? without the massive drumkit and with intelligible vocals? Also included is a short concert recording (at just over thirty minutes), which although it's nothing particularly revolutionary as far as their interpretations of the songs go, shows quite nicely the incredible energy that the band had in their live shows.

Is this rather extensive collection actually worth your trouble? It depends. If you're a fan of Mclusky, then yes, this is definitely worth getting your hands on. If not however, I'd probably consider it carefully. A band this shambolic and chaotic is always going to have a lot of sub-par material, and plenty of that material has been collected here, along with the gems. Either way, it's a fitting way to do justice to the band's back catalogue, and listening to this set makes it obvious why the band were so good in the first place.