DISCS: Seven CDs & two DVDs.

YEARS: 1981 - 1998.

LOWDOWN: British folk-punk icon Billy Bragg is one of the last people we expected to issue a box set. It's not that he doesn't have the material -- the singer-songwriter has issued well over a dozen albums and EPs during the last 20-plus years. And it's not that there isn't a market for it -- we know plenty of fans who would appreciate having Bragg's hard-to-find recordings neatly compiled and sonically refurbished. It's just that you'd think the whole concept of box sets, with their fancy packaging, ego-massaging biographies and navel-gazing nostalgia, would be too rock-starry and elitist for this leftie rabble-rouser whose sound is often described as a cross between Joe Strummer and Woody Guthrie.

If Bragg's Volume 1 were your typical hit-and-miss set, you'd be right. But it's not. Rather, it's exactly the sort of box you would expect from an artist of his integrity: One that's as utilitarian and unassuming as its name, but delivers plenty of bang for your hard-earned buck. Nine discs of bang, to be exact. Including much you probably haven't heard or seen before. Volume 1's seven CDs include Bragg's first seven releases -- Life's a Riot With Spy Vs. Spy, Brewing Up With Billy Bragg, Between the Wars, Talking With the Taxman About Poetry, Live and Dubious and The Internationale. More importantly, three discs of those seven consist of bonus material -- previously unreleased cuts, home recordings, alternate takes, cover tunes, B-sides and other rarities. Also included are two DVDs of live performances in off-the-beaten-path spots like East Berlin, Lithuania and Nicaragua, along with a British TV documentary from 1985. All the discs come in elegantly simple cardboard digipaks, which fit into a no-frills box with just enough room left over for a 44-page book of lyrics and credits. (For those on a leaner budget, all the discs with the exception of one DVD are available separately.) You could quibble that some of the two-disc sets are short enough to fit on a single CD. But if you're already a Bragg fan, the plethora of bonus material will likely justify the cost of shelling out again for the songs you already own. And if you aren't a Bragg fan, there's probably no better time to become one.

HIGHLIGHTS: Bragg classics like A New England, Between the Wars, Greetings to the New Brunette, Levi Stubbs' Tears, Which Side Are You On? and I Dreamed I Saw Phil Ochs Last Night are all present and accounted for. But the real treat of listening to all these discs comes from hearing Bragg evolve from the bare bones guitar-and-vocals of Spy Vs. Spy to the lusher, fuller sound of Internationale. It's also hard not to smile at the baby-faced Bragg in some of the video footage, although the quality of the sound and picture can be dodgy at times.

EXTRAS: Sifting through all the dozens of bonus tracks would take more time and space than we have here. But if you aren't enticed by the prospect of covers of The Flying Burrito Brothers' Sin City, The Miracles' Tracks of My Tears, The Smiths' Back to the Old House and The Stones' The Last Time -- the latter two co-starring ex-Smiths axeman Johnny Marr -- perhaps you want to wait for Vol. 2. Or perhaps not.
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