ALL
(Owned & Operated)
by Scott Hefflon
A collection of 22 greatest hits, as requested by ALL‘s many online fans (fancy that, nerdcore kids sit in front of their computers? Who’da thunk?), all lovingly remastered by the dynamic duo, Bill Stevenson and Stephen Egarton. Spanning the years, the singers, and the nuances of style, ALL encompasses, ahem, the all of ALL. Some songs here may be unfamiliar to newer fans, and some may perk the ears of long-term fans who either took a breather (eight full-lengths in eightish years, all filled to the rim with pop-punk gems is kind of a lot to keep up with), or missed a record due to being dirt poor that year, or the mighty powerhouse that is Cruz records didn’t get the album into your local record store. So here’s yer chance to catch up, kids.
With all the lyrics, songwriting credits (for a change, it actually matters who wrote what song), the now-mandatory Descendents/ALL Family Shrub, not to mention a slew of photos spanning the years and the facial expressions, ALL is a necessary item for collectors as well as the merely curious, especially if you take into account the remastering. While the first couple ALL records were crisp and clean, the songs from those records were given a little more warmth and full-bodied umph here. Some fans may like the originals better, but those fans can skip the track, grumble a little, or throw on the original if it bothers them so fuckin’ much.
OK, I feel like a Trekkie, reading far too much into this stuff. ALL is a great greatest hits record, hitting highlights over the years, offering diversity, semi-rarities, and showing the spectrum of a band that was pop-punk before there was a word for it.
(PO Box 36 Fort Collins, CO 80522)