The Wallflowers: Collected 1996-2005

As the title of their “Greatest Hits” collection indicates, the Wallflowers spent a decade together from the mid-‘90s into the new millennium where they offered up classic roots rock and singer-songwriter introspection with a modern twist. Led by Jakob Dylan, the son of popular music’s most legendary singer-songwriter, the Wallflowers released five studio albums, topped the charts with tunes such as this collection’s lead-off cut, the spooky, organ-haunted “One Headlight” and the equally atmospheric “6th Avenue Heartache,” and even won a couple of GRAMMY awards in the process. Dylan’s songwriting is both literate and muscular, using no- nonsense guitars and pure purring organs to cut through the solid, slashing drums. This neo-classic brand of rock ‘n’ roll easily slotted alongside old-time classics such as the Band and Graham Parker, as well as modern day practitioners Counting Crows and Wilco with tracks such as “Letters from the Wasteland,” “The Beautiful Side of Somewhere,” and “God Says Nothing Back” (appearing here as both finished studio track and early demo) that exude an ageless wisdom in their timeless truths.