Vagabonds, Kings, Warriors, Angels

In what has been a vintage year for Irish music, they’ve kept the best wine for the end. This marathon five-hour trawl through the awesome Thin Lizzy treasury, and Philip Lynott's solo career, is a remarkable document.

Lizzy patented a unique brand of hard-nosed rock, Lynott's lyrics revolve around macho themes of masculine camaraderie, with occasional eruptions of Celtic romanticism and are peopled by an impressive catalogue of often humorous comic-book heroes.

And then there's the aching love songs, delivered in that voice as smooth as cocoa and designed to melt the hardest of hearts (listen, really listen, to 'Little Girl In Bloom'). Meanwhile, songs like 'Remembering Part 2', 'Philomena' and 'Dublin' remind us that Lynott wrote more explicitly and lovingly about his home town, country and family than most rock stars are supposed to.

Lynott had that uncanny knack of consistently picking ace musicians, whether long-serving compadre Brian Downey or the axe-wielding Bell, Moore, Gorham, White and Robertson, all of whom are represented here in all their finery. For despite the inner turmoil and the musicians' revolving door, Thin Lizzy still managed to produce an amazing consistency and quality of work over a career that stretched beyond a dozen years.

All the usual suspects are here, ‘Whiskey In The Jar’, ‘Rosalie’ (a rare cover), ‘Sarah’, ‘Dancing In The Moonlight’, the stirring power chords of ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’, ‘Still In Love With You’, plus solo stuff a la ‘King’s Call’, ‘Old Town’, ‘Nineteen’, the Moore duet ‘Parisienne Walkways’ et al. Along the way you can marvel at less celebrated tracks such as ‘Sitamoia’, ‘Brought Down’, ‘Soldier Of Fortune’, the reggaefied and semi-autobiographical ‘Half Caste’ and the live and deadly ‘Are You Are Ready’.

The debut single ‘The Farmer’ is really of academic interest, but useful to have nonetheless, and the former flexipop single ‘Song For Jimi’ from 1981 is not just an acknowledgement of Hendrix’s influence on Lynott’s image and music, but has serious fireworks from Eric Bell.

The 1974 Decca single ‘Little Darling’ is another unheralded gem, and you can hear the Grand Slam demo ‘Sisters Of Mercy’ and weep and wonder at what might have been.

There’s no ‘Yellow Pearl’, but that’s just me being greedy. There are 73 tracks from over a dozen albums, singles, EPs and some hard-to-come bys and heretofore unreleaseds to spice the mix.

This Christmas, treat yourself to a history lesson in exuberant, exhilarating rock. You can catch up on Kylie later.