Zach of All Trades/Zach Kukkonen

The words "greatest hits album" make me cringe. Besides the facts that those albums are cobbled together mostly just to make money and include one or two new songs not worth the price of the CD, most artists that put out greatest hits albums have no business anywhere near calling 10 to 12 of their songs "great hits."

Vanilla Ice has a greatest hits album. Lou Bega (of "Mambo No. 5" fame) has a greatest hits album. Creed released a greatest hits album two years after breaking up, five years before reuniting and after putting out all of three CDs. Aaron Carter - yes, Aaron Carter - has not one, but two greatest hits albums. Shaquille O'Neal has a greatest hits album, including those not-so-memorable hits "I'm Outstanding" and "What's Up Doc? (Can We Rock)."

Now I have nothing against these artists; they're just trying to make a buck. But to get a real feel for a band or singer's music, you can't condense it to the songs that got airplay. To truly appreciate a band, you have to listen to their entire catalog, not just the tracks you bought their albums for.

Take Jimmy Eat World, one of my personal favorite bands. I don't like the first couple albums, but it's fun to see the progression into the greatness that are "Clarity," "Bleed American" and "Futures." You also do not get the full Jimmy Eat World experience just from hearing "The Middle" or "Pain," which are actually in the bottom half of their respective albums if I had to rank songs.

To completely get how wonderful Jimmy Eat World is, you have to listen to the songs that would never make the radio, like the closers on each of their last four albums. Two of them ("23" and "Goodbye Sky Harbor") top off at more than seven minutes of musical heaven, while "Dizzy" and "My Sundown" both are nearly six minutes. Casual fans would also miss out on bands' EPs (minor releases usually paced between albums), of which Jimmy Eat World has been prolific with, and have included wonderful songs like "Disintegration," "Closer" and "The Most Beautiful Things."

So before you go out and get "Whitesnake's Greatest Hits" or "Best of Modern English," maybe go in a different direction at the CD rack. You'll be glad you did.

Zach Kukkonen can be reached at zkukkonen@mininggazette.com.