Galore is a collection of cuts from MacColl's fine first solo album, Kite, and its patchy successor, Electric Landlady, filled out with earlier singles, duets and collaborations. It's no less than MacColl deserves, on balance--though employed to the point of ubiquity as a backing vocalist, she has struck out under her own name relatively rarely. The duets include two with The Pogues ("Fairytale Of New York" and "Miss Otis Regrets") and one with Evan Dando of The Lemonheads (a cover of Lou Reed's "Perfect Day"). There are a few judicious cover versions (The Smiths' "You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby" and Billy Bragg's "A New England", which contains an extra verse Bragg wrote for her). Her otherwise unobtainable early singles are also neatly rounded up ("They Don't Know", "He's On The Beach", "There's A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis"). --Andrew Mueller
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