Everclear Album: “The Best of...”

Description :

Recording information: 1995 - 2004. <p>Though Everclear's sound wasn't particularly distinctive in the post-grunge 1990s, the band's singer and songwriter Art Alexakis penned melodies and lyrics substantial enough to make them stand out from the pack. BEST OF brings together 10 of Everclear's biggest hits, providing a concise, well-selected sampler of Alexakis's songcraft and the band's expansive, melodic rock. Fans seeking a more complete collection should look for the 2004 compilation TEN YEARS GONE, which doubles the number of BEST OF's tracks, but in many ways this pared-down blast of the band's best is the ideal introduction.

Compilation: 3 stars; Economic value: 5 stars

Everclear has been kown primarily as a "singles" band (despite the ambitious "Songs from an American Movie Vol. 1 and 2" albums in 2000). A couple of years ago, a 'best of' was issued as "Ten Years Gone: The Best of Everclear 1994-2004". Now, without much fanfare, comes this new 'best of'.

"The Best of Everclear" (10 tracks, 39 min.) starts off with its 2 biggest hits, "Santa Monica" and "Everything to Everyone". Some minor hits that had been left off of "Ten Years Gone" are on here, such as "Heartspark Dollar Sign" and "One Hit Wonder". However, after that, it becomes a mixed bad, as lots of essential hits are simple missing: "Wonderfull", "Father of Mine", "I Will Buy You a New Life", "Volvo Driving Soccer Mom" and "When It All Goes Wrong Again" all are MIA. Instead, there are miscellaneous songs such as "Brown-Eyed Girl", "So Much for the Afterglow", "Sunflowers" and "Annabella's Song", all of which sound pretty good. Please note that there are no liner notes whatsoever to provide credits or any other info on the songs or the band.

That said, this album is released at a rock-bottom list price of $5.99. If you think of it as a double A-side single ("Santa Monica"/"Everything to Everyone") with 8 bonus tracks, this is hard to beat as economic value. For a "complete" overview of Everclear, "Ten Years Gone" is clearly the better compilation. For a cheap and cursory introduction, "The Best of Everclear" will do.