NAMED after the low-budget horror movie 2,000 Maniacs, the 10,000 Maniacs were formed in Jamestown, New York, by guitarist John Lombardo and Natalie Merchant, their ever-thoughtful focal point and lyricist, who was drawn to the horrors and injustices of the world.

She wrote of teenage pregnancy, small-town toil, alcoholism, child abuse, illiteracy, corporate greed and war: serious, proletariat protest songs that were lifted from despondency by her stirring voice. While it would be unfair to mock this retrospective's subtitle by saying The Popular, Obscure & Unknown Recordings amount to much the same thing in the case of 10,000 Maniacs, nevertheless the earnest, blue-collar sextet never charted higher than number 47 (with Candy Everybody Wants in 1993). Yet their 1987 album In My Tribe remains a highpoint in contemporary American folk rock, and rightly provides five of the 17 'Most Popular' selections. Disc Two is more erratic, Merchant being outshone by REM's Michael Stipe on To Sir With Love but bonding joyously with Talking Heads' David Byrne in a freewheeling acoustic reading of Iris Dement's Let The Mystery. Enervated covers of Everyday Is Like Sunday and Starman should have remained obscure.

Updated: 08:58 Thursday, March 04, 2004