The Best of The Waterboys 81–90 is made up of 12 tracks which were personally selected by the band's lead singer, musician and songwriter Mike Scott.

[6][7] Jason Guy, the head of marketing at Chrysalis, told Music Week in 1991, "The band have a great reputation and they've released five albums, but people don't know where to start.

I left out an awful lot of songs I really love: 'The Pan Within', 'December', 'Savage Earth Heart', 'A Pagan Place', 'Rags', 'The Stolen Child'.

"[9]Upon its release, Ian Gittins of Melody Maker described the compilation as "unreservedly recommended" and a "splendid document, a treasure trove which tacitly acknowledges that Mike Scott's aesthetic fortunes have taken a recent dip".

So very few have found it in them to make music gripped by such a huge, hurting sense of ambition, so devout a quest for the stars, so passionate a bid to transcend history and genre via mighty spirit.

And few star-seekers, it must sadly be said, have plunged back to the mud of terra firma with such a sickening thud.