Click for Album description from Plex
Gathering singles, B-sides, BBC sessions, and key album cuts from all chapters of the Housemartins' brief but brilliant career, the posthumous Now That's What I Call Quite Good! is both a glowing greatest-hits package and an odds-and-ends clearinghouse -- a fitting epitaph for a band which thrived on contradictions in consistently pitting the personal versus the political and the secular versus the spiritual. Despite the uniform excellence of their two studio LPs, this release confirms once and for all that the Housemartins were first and foremost a singles band -- even removed from their album context, highlights including "Bow Down," "Build," and "The Light Is Always Green" boast all the immediacy and infectiousness of classic pop radio fodder, even if their actual mainstream appeal was minimal at best. The previously uncollected material, meanwhile, reveals a warmth and intimacy often missing from Paul Heaton's most trenchant social commentaries -- in particular, the "garage gospel" approach which distinguishes remarkable readings of Luther Ingram's "I'll Be Your Shelter" and the Isley Brothers' "Caravan of Love" (the latter the Housemartins' lone U.K. chart-topper) radiate an intensely humanistic empathy which underlines the utter conviction at the heart of all the group's work. ~ Jason Ankeny
1. I Smell Winter 2. Bow Down 3. Think For A Minute! 4. There Is Always Something There To Remind Me 5. The Mighty Ship 6. Sheep 7. I’ll Be Your Shelter 8. Five Get Over Excited 9. Everyday’s The Same 10. Build 11. Step Outside 12. Flag Day 13. Happy Hour 14. You’ve Got A Friend 15. He Ain’t Heavy 16. Freedom 17. The People Who Grinned Themselves To Death 18. Caravan Of Love 19. The Light Is Always Green 20. We’re Not Deep 21. Me And The Farmer 22. Lean On Me 23. Drop Down Dead 24. Hopelessly Devoted To Them