B-side compilations can very easily be a hit or miss proposition for listeners, and more often than not, it's only the most die-hard fans who are interested in listening to the also-rans that weren't good enough to make it to the big leagues. In the liner notes to
Long Forgotten Songs: B-Sides & Covers 2000-2013,
Rise Against let the listener know that the songs that don't make their albums aren't cut for being bad, they're cut for not quite fitting in, and listening to the collection, it's a sentiment that seems to hold true. The songs here all feel fully realized and fleshed-out, so it's easy to imagine the band making some tough choices in the eleventh hour as they were putting their albums together and trying to decide which unlucky song was going to get voted off the island, so to speak. More enlightening than the B-sides are the covers. Tackling tracks from
Nirvana,
Black Flag,
Journey, and
Bruce Springsteen (just to name a handful), the compilation provides a keen insight into the influences that helped the band craft their driving and accessible sound. On the surface, it almost feels like the band are playing the covers a bit too close to the originals, but played alongside some of their originals, the imprint these bands had on
Rise Against is undeniable. While
Long Forgotten Songs: B-Sides & Covers 2000-2013 might appeal more to longtime fans than casual listeners, it's a solid compilation of songs that hold up on their own and it's not immediately apparent to the listener why they were relegated to soundtracks and compilations in the first place. ~ Gregory Heaney