No Use For A Name - AllThe Best Songs

Sun 19th Aug, 2007 in Music Reviews

It’s always funny how quick bands are to jump to defend their so-called – œbest-of’ compilations. No Use For A Name are the latest band to bring out their career-spanning compilation, and as if to justify it frontman Tony Sly writes in the liner notes, “for me it’s just a way of saying – œhere’s what we have done so far, in case you missed any of it.’” Considering they’ve racked up more than 12 releases over the years, perhaps we’ll let Tony off the hook – this time.

It goes without saying that All The Best Songs is a good place to start if you don’t know anything by the band or are missing chunks of their back catalogue (aren’t all best-ofs’ good for that?). In true punk rock style their songs are short and fast, making it possible for them to squeeze in a whopping 26 songs in just over 72 minutes.

For any – œtrue fan’, the true worth in this release is in the bonuses. Two bonus tracks, History Defeats and Stunt Double are b-sides from the Keep Them Confused Sessions, the former a fairly run-of-the-mill NUFAN song and the latter a more mellow number with acoustics and harmonies. The other worthwhile bonus is the booklet.

Each song has a commentary, often with interesting little tidbits ( Coming Too Close was written for shelved pilot, Screech M.D., a spin-off of Saved By The Bell ), written by everyone from current and ex members, to their tour manager, label owner (Fat Mike), even their mothers! Plenty of pictures to ogle, and keep you entertained for a short while.