If you can name the last album that Everclear released (without looking it up,) you are a better fan than I. But look it up I did because there was a time when I was a huge fan of Everclear. Apparently, the trivia answer is an Eleven Seven release Welcome to the Drama Club in 2006.

In fact, it appears that Everclear has released a couple albums this decade that I never heard of (and two best of sets to close out the Capitol Records days.) Craig Montoya and Greg Eklund departed the band but let's face it, Everclear has always been first and foremost about Art Alexakis. And Alexakis carried on the name with new bandmates.

The new release The Vegas Years, available April 15, is a collection of cover songs and outtakes. Everclear's best known cover Brown Eyed Girl is represented here as a tepid live version. But in fact, most of The Vegas Years works. Everclear has always had a uniquely busted kind of dirty rock sound coated in charming melodies and memorable hooks. That gives the band mainstream and alt rock cred without sounding too slickly produced, something that is rare in the post-grunge world of Britney Spears and J-Lo.

The Vegas Years sounds like we remember the band from their 90's hit machine days, think I Will Buy You a New Life, and that makes this release an enjoyable, if somewhat disposable, collection of songs. From the remixed version of The Go-Go's Our Lips Are Sealed to a great cover of Yazoo's Bad Connection, the tracks run the gamut of influences. The highlight is a new recording of Hall and Oates Rich Girl and the re-release of the Tom Petty cover American Girl.

I have a few complaints, notably a resurfaced version of Speed Racer from 1996 that still sounds lazy and forced, and I just can't believe the live recording of 687-5309 is the best one they had lying around. But overall, The Vegas Years does exactly what a good compilation is supposed to, remind us exactly of why we liked this band in the first place.

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