REASONS to be cheerful, one, two, three.

Reason one, This Is The Sea was already the best album in the 'big music' canon of Mike Scott's Waterboys, and the big music has just got bigger. "That was the river, this is the sea," hollers Scott on the closing title track of the original 1985 album. Now the re-issue comes with the sea at high tide: a second disc of seven previously unreleased tracks from the recording sessions; the Medicine Jack b-side to The Whole Of The Moon; a glorious early version of Sweet Thing and, best of all, the full-length account of the wonderfully uplifting Spirit. Scott almost can be forgiven for including his old answerphone message, and his forensic new sleeve notes are the stuff of a TS Eliot note on his poems.

Reason two: The Housemartins' chirpy, chippy Hull pop may have had a more comprehensive overview on Now That's What I Call Quite Good in 1987, but 2004's 14-track selection includes the previously overlooked gem Anxious. Better still, it comes with a second disc of eight Madness-style promo videos: a chance to wonder how Norman Cook and his appalling dancing feet could be transformed into king of rhythm Fat Boy Slim.

Reason three: The Joe Jackson Band were up there with Dr Feelgood, The Jam and Ian Dury as the great live acts at the cusp of the Eighties. To mark their 25th anniversary last year, piano man Joe rounded up Gary Sandfor, Graham Maby and Dave Houghton for an album of new recordings and reunion tour that found them as spiky, energetic and tight as a tourniquet on this bristling American set.

Updated: 09:14 Thursday, May 27, 2004