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May 15, 2023 Web Exclusive By Frank Valish

Our Lady Peace rode the wave of late-’90s “alternative” rock for a few albums before seemingly petering out, the Canadian four-piece apparently being forgotten to mainstream rock as quickly as “Starseed” from their debut Naveed brought them into the light. Alas, the band never stopped making music, their latest, 2022’s Spiritual Machines II being something of a sequel to its similarly titled conceptual predecessor from 21 years prior.

Collected: 1994-2022 attempts to sum up the band’s legacy as it were in 18 tracks that cover its evolution from “Starseed” to “Stop Making Stupid People Famous,” featuring Pussy Riot, and “Run” from Spiritual Machines II, across two beautiful clear LPs.

For any ’90s kids who may have picked this one up at Record Store Day 2023, the selling point undoubtedly was the first LP, made up of tracks from the band’s first three albums—1995’s Naveed, 1997’s Clumsy, and 1999’s Happiness…Is a Not a Fish That You Can Catch. A happy surprise, however, is the material on the second LP, from albums that barely registered, at least in the U.S.. The material is consistent with the band’s earlier work, and with the exception of a lamentable cover of The Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows,” which regrettably ends the package on a sour note, Collected: 1994-2022 serves its purpose admirably, summing the career of a band that flamed out in popular opinion way too soon. (www.ourladypeace.com)

Author rating: 7/10