'The Best of the Pogues' was the sixth album released by The Pogues and marked a watershed for the band. They had sacked founder, principal songwriter and lead singer Shane MacGowan and the album was intended as a end of an era before their projected renascence.

The second half of the '90s was difficult for the Cranberries, not just because of changing fashions, but because the group embraced both a social consciousness and a prog rock infatuation, crystallized by the Storm Thorgerson cover of Bury the Hatchet. Thorgerson has been retained for their fifth effort, Wake Up and Smell the Coffee, but the group has hardly pursued the indulgent tendencies of their previous collaboration with him – instead, they've re-teamed with producer Stephen Street and come up with an album that's as reminiscent of their debut as anything they've done since. So, even if it's wrapped in new clothing, this is essentially a return to basics, and it's a welcome one, since it's melodic, stately, and somber – perhaps not with the post-Sundays grace of "Linger," but with a dogged sense of decorum that keeps not just the group's musical excesses in check, but also O'Riordan's political polemics (although she still sneaks in cringe-inducing lines like "Looks like we've screwed up the ozone layer/I wonder if the politicians care").

"Bualadh Bos" means "Clap Your Hands" in Irish, and popular Irish alternative rock band the Cranberries encourage their audiences to do just that on this collection, the group's first official live album. Bualadh Bos: The Cranberries Live features 15 songs recorded between 1994 and 1998 at concerts in the United States, Canada, Norway, and Sweden, with the group performing most of their best-known songs for enthusiastic fans. Selections include "Linger," "Zombie," "Dreams," "Sunday," "Ridiculous Thoughts," "Free to Decide," and many more.

Flogging Molly are less of a band than they are a Transatlantic, Celtic-punk institution. Over the course of 25 years and thousands of shows around the world, Flogging Molly have transcended genres to become one of a very few bands that can literally share the stage with The Chieftains one day and Motörhead the next (this actually happened, by the way). For Flogging Molly’s seventh full-length Anthem, the band, which features married couple Dave King (vocals, guitar, bodhrán) and Bridget Regan (violin/fiddle, tin whistle, backing vocals), decided to get back to their roots and record 14 songs in 14 days with Steve Albini (Nirvana, Pixies) at Electrical Audio Studio in Chicago. “It was quite amazing because I don’t think as band we’ve ever done that before,” King says.

An impressive collection, Granite Years: Best of 1986-1997 contains over two hours of the finest Oysterband has to offer. Frequently, such comprehensive releases are the cause for debate among the most devoted fans. But that is not the scenario surrounding this release. From Step Outside's "Hal-an-Tow" to Wide Blue Yonder's "The Oxford Girl" to Holy Bandits' "Blood Wedding" to Deep Dark Ocean's "Native Son," this release hits all of the key tracks by this legendary British folk-rock band. If there is any drawback, it is that no track from their 1991 release, From Little Rock to Leipzig, was included and a whopping seven tracks from their previous best-of release, Trawler, grace the track list of this two-CD set. It should be clarified that Trawler was a collection of re-recorded favorites that originally appeared on previous albums. That's a minor detail that won't matter to the uninitiated and is easily overlooked by the hardcore fan simply due to the preponderance of superb material found within these 30 tracks.

Live is a concert video release by rock band The Cranberries. Recorded on 14 January 1994 at Astoria 2 on the band's stop in London, England, it was originally released on VHS in May 1994. The concert was re-released on DVD in February 2005. The DVD includes an interactive picture gallery and a jukebox feature that allows you to play the tracks in a randomised playlist.

Oysterband's Trawler is a compilation of favorites from the group's previous seven albums, only newly recorded by the present lineup. Essentially, it's like a "covers" album of The Oysterband covering itself. Long one of Britain's prime synthesists of Celtic and rock, and a thorn in the side of purists everywhere, Trawler takes the group's material one step further away from tradition. Hal-An-Tow is a possessed whirligig of sounds; Oxford Girl reconfirms itself as the group's most memorable melody. One has to admit to slight unease with the "rewriting history" aspect of this re-recording, and a compilation of the original versions would have been far more comfortable.

The story of the Cranberries is one of dogged survival. Debuting with a maiden release that everybody seemed to rate as a portent of great things, the band suffered not only a "difficult" second album but also an absolute stinker of a third one, as the bandmembers strove desperately – too desperately – to live up to their reputation for sensitivity and thoughtfulness, and completely lost sight of their true virtues in the process. Internecine squabbling, health problems, and general disaffection all took further toll, so much so that, as the band prepared to release its fourth album, 1999's Bury the Hatchet, many observers were shocked to learn that the band even existed any longer, let alone was capable of actually making a new record – especially one that was as good as Bury the Hatchet turned out to be. Filmed at the Paris Omnisport de Bercy on December 9, 1999, toward the end of that album's accompanying tour, Beneath the Skin captures the full 84-minute concert performance, with the band ranging and, occasionally, raging through a veritable greatest-hits collection.

UK five CD box set containing a quintet of original albums packaged in mini LP sleeves and housed in a slipcase. This set from the veteran Scottish Folk/Rock band includes the albums the Cutter & the Clan, the Big Wheel, Searchlight, Mara and Amazing Things

With producer Steve Lillywhite at the helm, Scotland's Big Country managed to deliver earnest, socially conscious arena anthems in a similar vein to U2 and the Alarm. The twist was their trademark bagpipe sound, achieved through the use of E-Bow. The unique sound of "In a Big Country" garnered the band considerable attention and a Top 20 single in the U.S. The Crossing, however, is an album whose richness goes beyond the single. The more subdued "Chance" is sparser and its personal lyrics are every bit as heartfelt as the more populist-inclined anthems like the wonderful "The Storm" or the thundering "Fields of Fire." The lyrics are straightforward and, despite the grand themes of many of the tracks, manage to steer clear of being overly pretentious. While this album earned the band a gold record, Big Country's sound and image (reinforced by the members' tartan checked shirts) resulted in them being tagged a novelty, and they never duplicated their initial success in America.

Irish brother-sister act The Corrs play their irresistible blend of light pop and traditional Celtic sounds at two different locations. The first is Dublin's remarkable open-air stadium, Lansdowne Road, where the group performed in front of 50,000 adoring fans. The second is North London's Finsbury Park, the site of the 2000 Fleadh (pronounced "Fluh") Festival. Eighteen lives songs and three bonus tracks are included.