Charlatans

Of all the countless bands to emerge from England since the rise of "Madchester," the Charlatans UK are undoubtedly one of the most accomplished and talented of the lot. With a solid attitude and musical momentum that seems to never lose steam, they have endured the death of a key band member, record label change and tireless touring over their 12-year career. A few years back, the singles collection Melting Pot was released, which documented their finest moments in the charts, although the lack of liner notes made it a less than ideal item for serious fans. Now we have Songs From The Other Side, which gathers all their B-sides between 1990 and 1997 and the five studio albums released during that time. Sadly, material from the last two studio albums for Universal is not included in this compilation, but no matter, as this is a great collection not only for hardcore fans but for the casual listener. It's nice to get early classics like "Everything Changed" and "Happen To Die," along with more recent material on one disc. Also nice are the Chemical Brothers' remix of "Nine Acre Dust" and the Van Basten mix of "Feel Flows." As with the singles compilation, the main drawback of Songs From The Other Side is that the liner notes are limited solely to release date info, with no additional pictures, stories or the details that fans expect from collections like this. Regardless, the music stands for itself, and the strength of all these songs just proves how talented this band is.