The Whole Affair: The Very Best of Mary CoughlanHail Mary Records

There have always been a few what-if questions attached to the career of Mary Coughlan, and they all pertain to her now-sorted problems with alcohol. It’s all water under the bridge at this point, but for a while in the mid-1980s she could easily have turned into a substantial commercial proposition were it not for certain circumstances (who knows how many of these were in her control?). That Coughlan has continued apace is to her credit, and while she is incorrectly perceived as a “safety-net” artist, there’s certainly enough on this two-CD set (one of studio tracks, the other the singer’s personal choice of favourite live tunes) to warrant exploration by those who like their jazz/torch/pop melodies laced with arsenic, and peppered with regret, self-loathing and despair. marycoughlanmusic. com

Download tracks: The Double Cross, Invisible to You, A Leaf from a Tree