The Jazz Butcher was the vehicle of singer/songwriter Pat Fish, an archetypal British eccentric whose sharp observational wit and melodic gifts navigated the group through constant lineup shifts, stylistic mutations that included jangle pop, jazz, punk, cabaret, sophisti-pop, and oddball novelties, and a series of name changes. No matter the players involved, the style of music on offer, or the name under which it was made, the band's records were alternately hilarious and heartbreaking, maddeningly tricky, and joyfully simple all at once. Stretching from the group's 1982 home-cooked debut In Bath of Bacon through the big pop sound of 1989's Big Planet Scarey Planet to latter albums like 2022's posthumously issued The Highest in the Land, which showed that Fish's talents never waned, the Jazz Butcher's collected works make a strong case for his inclusion in the pantheon of great British musical eccentrics.