4 out of 5

Label: Aquarius

Producer: Various

It’s a greatest hits album, so how much can you really say?

I’ll offer the following: whoever decided on the order of songs on the compilation actually put some thought into it.  I prefer single artist comps to not be chronological because it makes it too easy to just focus on a particular period you like, and you probably already have those songs grouped together in your mind.  Solid Gold is divvied up almost track by track, starting in the middle of the band’s career at the point of the comp (Does This Look Infected?) and then jumping back and forth to the tail end (Underclass Hero) and even nabbing a re-recorded single from their first EP (Half Hour of Power).  By switching up the order as such, it can shed some new light on the changes they’ve made, or make you re-hear or re-appreciate a song in a new way.

Now you also have the struggle of putting together a Greatest Hits, which is that… it’s all killer no filler, nyuck nyuck.  Despite my defense of Sum 41 as more than your average pop-punk group, they were still a major label act with definite stand-out bound-for-singles on their albums, and these songs were, on a whole, catchy as shit.  Filler has its place on albums, and most listeners can attest that the “off” tracks on any particular recording tend to become your favorites over time, they’re just not as initially grabbing as a hook made for radio.  So “All the Good Sh**” starts to wear you down after a bit because these are all the peaks.

While the music videos have been collected previously, it’s nice having an updated edition as the second disc w/ the special version of this collection.  The extra track “Always” isn’t necessarily worth the price of admission if you already have Sum’s albums, and you can always youtube their videos, but if you’re a music watchin’ lady or unlady, the DVD might be the pants kick you need to pick this up.