2014 collection from the Irish rockers fronted by Bob Geldof. The Boomtown Rats were one of the most successful bands of the 1970s in the UK, as central to the decade's dying embers as Chic, Abba, the Clash, the Specials and the Jam. Their grown-up new wave and real time stories captured the imagination of a mass audience in a way that many of their peers did not. The legacy of the Rats is based primarily on their remarkable street songs; if punk supposedly was all about the outsider, then they, the Rats, were on the outside of the outside. Dublin was not big or sexy then; the critic was not in the everyday lingua franca. As the Rats grew bigger, they seldom lost sight of those roots. The Rats are back, as brilliantly spiky, funny and irreverent as ever, and SO MODERN: THE COLLECTION celebrates that fact. This compilation mixes some of the bands biggest hits including the #1 smashes 'I Don't Like Mondays' and 'Rat Trap' with some of the band's deeper album tracks and is a fantastic introduction to a group with an incredible legacy.