Follow Your Bliss: The Best of Senses Fail＜Blue Vinyl＞

In most cases, the "best-of" album is like one of those tiny spoons at the ice cream parlor, allowing someone unfamiliar with a band's work to get a taste without overwhelming them with a full-on triple scoop that is their entire discography. Every so often, though, you get a compilation like Follow Your Bliss: The Best of Senses Fail, where the set is wrapped up with enough fan service that its intent seems to be less about bringing in new fans and more about reconnecting with the old ones. While the compilation gathers songs from Senses Fail's four studio albums, what is really going to draw people into Follow Your Bliss are the little extras. Fans of the band are definitely going to want to dig into the albums liner notes, which feature commentary from all of the bandmembers about every song in the set. Interestingly, former members Heath Saraceno, Mike Glita, and Garrett Zablocki lend their voices to the commentary to give some perspective to the older material, while newer members like Zack Roach provide anecdotes about hearing these songs for the first time as a fan rather than as a member of the band. This kind of insight is something that you just don't get with a lot of compilations like this, but fortunately the booklet isn't the only thing the set has to offer. Also included is a bonus EP, which features four new songs recorded in 2012. Offering new material on a compilation like this makes for an interesting twist on the idea of a greatest-hits album, with Follow Your Bliss giving devotees of the band a look not only at where the band has been, but where they're going. ~ Gregory Heaney