Echo & The Bunnymen - Ballyhoo: The Best Of (1997) [Remastered]

Released to coincide with Echo & the Bunnymen's 1997 comeback, the 18-track Ballyhoo is an attempt to assemble a definitive overview of the group's seminal '80s material, yet it falls short of the mark. Ballyhoo essentially replicates the bulk of 1985's Songs to Learn & Sing, adding three tracks from their eponymous 1987 album and their non-LP cover of "People Are Strange." Meanwhile, four songs ("Angels and Devils," "Simple Stuff," "Pride and the Puppet," "Read It in Books") are eliminated in favor of "All That Jazz," "Villiers Terrace," "Over the Wall," and "The Disease." Those four songs are good, and the remaining singles -- "The Cutter," "The Killing Moon," "Bring on the Dancing Horses" -- are post-punk classics, but Ballyhoo still overlooks too much fine material to be a definitive retrospective. Instead, it's simply a respectable, solid introduction.