Canada’s quietly-celebrated alternative rock outfit Barenaked Ladies have notched up another retrospective after over twenty years of making music. It’s important to note that the band already have a compilation on the market, titled Disc One: All Their Greatest Hits (1991-2001). At nineteen tracks, it includes the band’s biggest singles, some covers, live tracks and obscurities. All in all, it’s a wonderfully comprehensive release and gives Hits From Yesterday... plenty to live up to. Unfortunately, even a brief examination of its content should reveal that this new compilation pales in comparison to its predecessor.

On the surface, Hits From Yesterday... is a sensible enough collection of the band's songs. There’s plenty of pop-tastic entertainment here, the playful rapid fire lyricism of "One Week" and the bittersweet rocker "It’s All Been Done" among the highlights. Additional gems come in the form of the thunderous college-rock cut "Old Apartment", "Call and Answer"’s tenderness and "Pinch Me"’s lonely introspection.

Still, despite a natural appeal, it’s hard to take Hits From Yesterday... too seriously when nine of its fourteen tracks can be found on Disc One. Certainly, as a greatest hits, it ought to capture the band’s biggest decade. That much is a given. However, in addition to the overlap, the release barely concentrates on the band’s more recent endeavours. The remaining five tracks attempt to illustrate the band’s work over three albums - a formidable task to say the least. Continuing the trend, Hits From Yesterday... sticks with the singles, with the short but sweet "Big Bang Theory Theme" thrown in for good measure. Overall, Hits From Yesterday... would have done well to include a spread of songs, rather than profess an ill-conceived imbalance, biased towards one decade.

Speaking of imbalance, a certain baffling scenario should not be overlooked. Why does Hits From Yesterday... run at just a little over fifty minutes, whereas its predecessor Disc One covers more than seventy? The band has existed for a whole additional decade since Disc One and yet this release has less to offer. Less. It makes no sense. Hits From Yesterday... should be an all-encompassing look at the band’s career and yet, in this regard - somehow, some way - it fails.

Ultimately, Hits From Yesterday... is an academic, cut-out-and-keep guide to the band, but one less rewarding than Disc One or even a tailor-made mix courtesy of any infatuated fan. Hits From Yesterday... appears to pander to those only casually acquainted with the band - that is, those who had no inclination to proceed beyond the likes of "One Week" in the first place - frivolously re-serving a bunch of singles that already lay in plain sight. The truth is, a lot of Barenaked Ladies’ best work resided in the peripherals - that is, their album tracks and their many obscurities. They were a band much bigger and better beyond the realm of chart figures and Hits From Yesterday... doesn’t quite pay enough respect to that. All in all, the release offers an enjoyable showcase of the band’s talents, though it barely scratches the surface of just how much they had to offer.

Hits From Yesterday... earns only a pass mark - not for a lack of quality content, but for an inept, incomplete representation of the band’s entire career.

Review Score: 5/10