NOFX – The Longest EP

In my recent review of The Mad Caddies’ Consensual Selection I questioned the necessity of a “best-of” album. Fans already have all the songs and in today’s day and age, you can get a feel for the band from their MySpace page. And yet, mere days after reviewing that record I couldn’t help but gush overNOFX’s latest compilation: The Longest EP.

I couldn’t really figure out what it was exactly that made The Longest EP so much better than Consensual Selections but I guess it all comes down to logistics. For you see, technically The Longest EP isn’t a “best of” collection (NOFX already did that with The Greatest Songs Ever Written (By Us)); instead, it’s simply a collection of every one of their EPs ever released along with a few rare tracks as well.
Combining all of the EPs into one release makes it a much more valuable collection; so while yes, I already have the songs from some of their newer EPs – Cokie The Clown and Never Trust A Hippy for example – I don’t own some of their older material like their 1987 EP The PMRC Can Suck On This. This helps makes the album worth while. Certain songs (Concerns of a GOP Neo-Phyte) have never seen the light of day before; and others are acoustic bsides (13 Stiches, My Orphan Years) from singles.

Throwing any thought of continuity out the window, the record doesn’t go in any type of chronological order. Their oldest stuff comes last, the newer material in the middle and the stuff from the nineties kick start the so-called EP.  This gives the record a “best of” feel without being a “best of” as the record mixes all of the band’s different eras and topics.  There’s religion bashing  (You’re Wrong, I’m Going To Hell For This One), sex (Perverted, S&M Airlines), booze and drugs (I Wanna Be An Alcoholic, Cokie The Clown), politics (Glass War),  the oddly personal (My Orphan Year) and my favourite – the tongue in cheek music references like 13 Stitches, Everything In Moderation Especially Moderation and Jaw Knee Music.

With thirty songs there’s a few filler tracks but the only song that really should have been left off is the painful War on Errorism Commercial that is neither funny or well placed. The rest all have their place and if the length is a concern to you – don’t worry. It’s all just one EP after another, so you can always just pick one EP and then go onto something else afterwards.

It’s not a great introduction to the band, but for those wanting to fill in some of their collection – The Longest EP is a must have.