While they were a fun read in the early days, the band became fascinating when they lost some of their sloganeering zest and Richey James became more prolific as a spokesperson for the band. Beautiful, soft-spoken, and intelligent, he gave the best interviews of any rock artist that decade, without having any musical influence in the band. Lyrically, Richey took over, and, beginning with Gold >From The Soul and ending with The Holy Bible, he transformed a lost band into something unique: sharp commentators on the human condition, pop music, and social inequality. The albums and interviews were filled with references to Ballard, Nietzsche, Mirbeau, Foucault, Mishima, Plath, etc. Yet the lyrics and interviews also painfully tracked the downfall of a disturbed mind into the rather unglamorous mixture of anorexia, self-mutilation, and alcoholism, eventually leading up to his still-unsolved disappearance in The Year of Kurt.

The band would eventually continue without Richey and became more popular than ever; they lost their dark bite and consequently were embraced by MTV, while being praised for surviving with dignity. Listening to this overview, I still have trouble being seduced by their sound, the late-era power ballads and stadium rockers that, by far, outnumber the dark period pieces on this collection and sometimes have a spark of inspiration (especially 'The Masses Against The Classes' and the subtle new track 'There By The Grace Of God') but more often feel leaden ('If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next' and 'The Everlasting' are the main offenders). To be honest, musically there is little that really enchants, out of the 20 tracks: 'You Love Us' was always clever, 'Faster' has a seductive punch, and best of all remains the haunting 'Kevin Carter' (a key text by Richey on the Richey mythos: his identification with the South African photographer who couldn't turn away from the blackest horror of a dead child being eaten by a vulture — his famous picture haunting him and eventually driving him to suicide — is uncanny).