Twenty years. These guys have been going at it for twenty years. That's nothing. The bad thing is that I remember listening to them as early as 1981-1982, which makes me a very old person. Every time I look back and remember something that happened more than 15 years ago, I feel old. And I'm only 27. Go figure.

In all these years, I have discovered a disturbing trend in the record industry and it involves compilations of previous releases by famous and nearly famous artists. What happens (or at least, the way I see it) is that whenever a band breaks up, it is mandatory to release either a "Best of" or a "Greatest Hits" of said artist/group. Usually a "Best of" means that the artist did not score very well on the charts, or maybe they have a cult following. The "Greatest Hits" is usually reserved for artists and bands with a better than average commercial success. Because of this, every time I hear news of a "Best of" or "Greatest Hits" being released, it gives me the shakes - at least until the next normal release by the same artist is announced a year or so later.

A few years later I noticed that there was not much difference between a "Best Of" and a "Greatest Hits" release, since most of the time they were nothing more than all the songs that made it higher than the 100th spot in Billboard Magazine. The true "Best Of" should give you a picture of the progression (if any) in the musical style of the artists, throughout their recording history.

"The Best of 1980-1990" is such a work. Instead of grabbing every hit they recorded and throwing the whole thing together with a booklet full of old pictures, Island Records presents us with a double-CD set. The first CD paints "U2" as they moved throughout the 1980s, with the second CD featuring 15 B-sides (if you don't know what a B-side is, you don't know what you're missing). This is the way I've seen this done, and it works pretty well, especially for a younger generation that has been accustomed to the flashy, electronic "U2" of "Achtung Baby" and "Zooropa." In fact, the way I see this double CD is as a combination of a standard "Best Of" with "Attack of the Killer B's" by "Anthrax." If I have to explain that the "Killer B's" are B-sides, then you're missing the good stuff.

The first CD has 14 singles, ranging from "Pride (In the Name of Love)" to "Angel Of Harlem" and "All I Want Is You." It has some of my favorite "U2" tunes, including "The Unforgettable Fire," my favorite "U2" song from the 1980s. Each one of the tracks on this first CD shows "U2" in a slightly different musical phase, and you can see how the group little by little started inching towards mainstream (but they never hit mainstream, they overshot the whole thing with "Achtung Baby" and "Zooropa"). This first CD also has one of the most powerful political songs of the 20th Century, "Sunday Bloody Sunday."

The second CD has 15 tracks that were released as B-sides to their main record cuts. None of the tracks are remarkable, and their cover of "Unchained Melody" is pretty bad on its own. Still, even if these tracks are not as powerful as the 14 in the first CD, they still provide a very powerful picture of how "U2" has grown up from a late 70's punk band, into one of the greatest pop bands to hit the 90's.

Since history is always in the making, you will have to wait until Island issues a "Best of 1991-2000" somewhere before the year 2010. But for now, I can strongly recommend you buy this double-CD set, whether you're a diehard fan, or you only know of "U2" because you saw them on MTV singing live from a Mall.