The Almighty

Welcome To Defiance: The Complete Recordings (1994-2001)

CHERRY RED/HNE RECORDINGS Ricky Warwick-fronted Britrockers’ under-appreciated mid-period collected.

It wasn’t just the Warrants and Poisons of the world that Nirvana holed beneath the waterline. On this side of the Atlantic a bunch of leather-trousered longhairs were forced to swiftly correct their course before they found themselves swept away by the rising tide of grunge.

Post-Cult biker-rock hairies The Almighty fared better than most, at least initially. Their transformation into a convincing mid-90s rock band is documented in this seven-disc box set. Their fourth album, 1994’s Crank, was taut and muscular, hitting hard when it needed to and deploying terrace choruses when required. By 1996’s equally impressive Just Add Life they had branched out even further – Top-30 hit All Sussed Out came loaded with its own horn section.

The Almighty may have survived grunge, but Britpop proved too much, and things went wobbly soon afterwards, although the inevitable split was followed by an equally inevitable

reunion, which produced

2000’s decent The Almighty

and the following year’s laboured Psycho-Narco.

All four albums are brought together here, along with three more discs of live tracks, remixes and B-sides. Overkill for all but mid-90s British rock completists, perhaps, but it’s also a nice snapshot of a band and a time that deserve a little bit more love. ■■■■■■■■■■