Greatest Hits

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Album Information

Total Tracks: 16   Total Length: 38:27

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Caitlin Dewey

eMusic Contributor

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07.07.09
The Donnas, Greatest Hits
2009 | Label: Purple Feather Records / Redeye

By the time they had graduated from high school, the Donnas had already released three albums, scored a contract with punk heavyweight Lookout! Records and completed a tour across Japan. So it makes sense that, at barely 30 years old, the girls of the Donnas are now releasing an album of greatest hits — though, true to their contrarian style, it contains more B-sides, live versions and unreleased tracks than actual greatest hits. All of the Donnas 'many incarnations are on display here, from the catty high school brat-rock of their teenage years ("I Don't Wanna Go To School") to their recent toils in hard rock revival ("We Own the Night") and the cleaner, radio-ready punk-pop that made them Top 100 staples in 2003 ("Take It Off," "Perfect Stranger"). Sixteen years have passed since the Donnas started playing punk in their parents 'garages, but the ever-evolving foursome is clearly still going strong.

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Not The Versions From Their Atlantic Years

Dvoodoo

The Donnas started their own Purple Feather imprint after tiring of the fickle music biz label rip-off shuffle. Check out the re-recorded, dirtied up mixes of their tunes that vary from the way the material was recorded for their old major label Atlantic. There's also some older rare tracks from their early days on Lookout.

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They Say All Music Guide

The joke is, of course, that Greatest Hits, Vol. 16 is not the Donnas’ 16th collection of hits, nor is the album even a collection of hits. Instead, it’s a hodgepodge of new songs, alternate versions, B-sides, and live and re-recorded versions of songs they originally recorded for Atlantic, plus a remix — a collection of odds and sods that by its nature would seem to hold interest only for diehards, but there’s a smidgeon of truth that this, like other albums called Greatest Hits, can be used as an introduction to the Donnas because it captures their reckless roar as well as any of their other albums. Arguably, it captures their sound better than their glossy major-label platters for Atlantic — certainly, “Take It Off” sounds more aggressive here than it did on Spend the Night — or even the somewhat leaden thud of their 2007 return to the minors, Bitchin’, giving as good a dose of thunder as the band ever has. – Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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