Liverpool' s
Boo Radleys lit up the mammoth alternative rock scene in the early to mid-'90s with their trippy blend of danceable Manchester pop and psychedelic noise rock, all of which was chronicled brilliantly on 2005's two-disc Find the Way Out collection. So how does the single-disc, generically titled
Best of the Boo Radleys hold up to the latter? The answer is limply. While this strangely sequenced, 15-track exploration of all things
Boo is not without its many charms, the lack of anything from 1992's
Everything's Alright Forever (specifically "Spaniard" and "Lazy Day") or 1998's
Kingsize casts this anthology deep in the shadow of its predecessor, and even the inclusion of numerous cuts (and rightly so) from 1993's brilliant Giant Steps album, this
Best Of can only be recommended as mediocre entry point for the uninitiated. ~ James Christopher Monger