Alkaline Trio are, without doubt, an institution in modern punk. They’re one of the bands that become associated with growing up because of the dark and personal subject matter, and if there’s a band that can get away with reworking some of their catalogue into a “Lo Fi” compilation album and throwing a few new tracks and a cover in, it’s likely them.
Excluding the two new tracks and the cover for a moment, Damnesia does have a habit of just making you hungry for the original tracks, and it’s a little hard to tell whether the new versions will ever break free of that. It’s a well constructed and thought out look back over the band’s career in a great format, but falls down a little in places because of the fact that it’s natural for ears to lust over the original recordings of favourite songs.
The two new tracks included probably aren’t instant classics, with both Dan and Matt both doing pretty much doing as expected, but both are lyrically strong and not bad tracks by any means. The Violent Femmes cover slots nicely into the record, but the almost country rock feel would probably feel a bit awkward in a live environment.
Greatest Hits CDs may be something destined to fall long before any other cash-ins, but this really can’t come under that banner, and Damnesia is unlikely to be a disappointment to Trio fans at all. Whether it becomes anything other than something for true fans to cherish is a little unlikely, but it’s not lazy by any means and well worth checking out if you’ve ever enjoyed the band.