No Use For A Name – All The Best Songs

When No Use for A Name were last in town, I had a chance to sit and talk to Matt Riddle for a few minutes. After the interview he asked me what I thought the turnout for the show would be. I ensured him that it would be a great turnout and really packed, but he was still nervous. After all, it was a cold, rainy and very wet Wednesday in the middle of March – would people still bare the elements to come out to see them?

They did, and it was a packed house. It was No Use For A Name, one of the most prominent names in punk rock from the past twenty years – and it didn’t matter that it was in the middle of the week and that the weather was crap, people still came out in full force. While the band has never received as much critical acclaim as some of their label mates and touring comrades, No Use For A Name have been able to maintain a continuous flow of momentum. They’ve never stopped touring, released countless albums, and worked hard for every bit of it. All The Best Songs is a commemorative look at those past two decades. With twenty six songs – including two previously unreleased tracks from the Keep Them Confused sessions – the album successfully captures the band’s prolific career.

Yes, while the compilation has tracks from albums such as the aforementioned Keep Them Confused alongside Leche Con Carne!, Making Friends, The Daily Grind, More Betterness and Hard Rock Bottom – the best element of the album is the track order. Rather than going from oldest to newest cuts, the songs are mixed and matched and thrown all over the place; and surprisingly, it works incredibly well. The songs flow nicely and you can barely tell that that one track comes from 1993 and the following from 2005. This only helps to cement the idea of how consistent the band has been through their career. Going from For Fiona to The Daily Grind and Let It Slide just somehow works.

With fan favorites like Justified Black Eye, Dumb reminders, Not Your Savior, Black Box, Chasing Rainbows, Soulmate, International You Day and On The Outside, All The Best Songs is just as the title implies. It is a mix tape of songs selected by the band showing what the band has done so far. On top of that, the album also comes with an in depth booklet with stories from the members and insights into the songs on here – along with a massive amount of pictures like any good retrospective.

For hardcore No Use fans, the record won’t give you that much excitement, other than in the booklet of stories and photos, as they’ve most likely heard all twenty-four previously released tracks on it. However, for the casual fan who’s heard only a few of their many albums, then this is a must have. It will introduce you to one of the hardest working bands around, who have stayed consistent over the past twenty years as they’ve watched trends come and go – and throughout it all, they’re still humble and aren’t sure if enough people will put in the extra effort to come see them live. The thing is, people always will – All The Best Songs proves why.