A fine round-up of the first six years of the Boys' career, with the added carrot of new track 'Was It Worth It?'.
Appealingly, the tracks are programmed in chronological order, demonstrating the duo's growth from the gritty simplicity of 'West End Girls', 'Love Comes Quickly' and 'Opportunities' to the sophisticated sound of the likes of 'Being Boring'.
The first five tracks are rooted in Thatcher's mid-80s Britain - a world of opportunism, broken dreams and forbidden lust, which infuse 'Surburbia' and 'It's A Sin' with a resonance beyond their 'mere' status as great four-minute pop songs.
The duo then cast their gaze beyond the horizon of the Top 10, firstly by linking up with Dusty Springfield for the classy 'What Have I Done To Deserve This?'.
1987's 'Actually' convincingly proved that here was a pop band who could take their audience with them. The low-key 'Rent', the hi-NRG passion of their cover of 'Always On My Mind' and the touching pomposity of 'Heart' all proved the band were going to be anything but formulaic.
The growth in their sound bore full fruit with 'Domino Dancing', its seductive Latin style hiding a chilling lyric about the effects of AIDS. By contrast, Tennant has never sounded so marvellously disinterested as on the ode to modern living that was its follow-up, 'Left To My Own Devices'.
The theme of living in the modern age has reappeared in several forms recently, most perfectly in the criminally underrated wistfullness of 'Being Bored'.
While some of the duo's recent material has arguably covered old ground, particularly 'It's Alright' and their uninspiring cover of 'Where The Streets Have No Name', this compilation firmly stakes a claim for the Boys as arguably the best pop band of the 1980s.
by Simon P Ward