This Is Music: The Singles 92-98

Released in 2004 well after the band’s apparently final breakup in acrimony — Nick McCabe having finally reached his fill even while the Urban Hymns tour was still ongoing — This is Music already seemed like a bit of a collection of distant memories given all the musical and cultural shifts of intervening years. But while it can’t fully capture the group’s fully epic sprawl early on — only the eight-minute version of “Gravity Grave” does those honors here — it does make a case for the group’s balance between soaring rock punch and focused ballads at its best.