Originally signed to the Epitaph label - home to US punk gods NOFX - in 1993, The Offspring sprang from that early Nineties American alt-rock buzz and, adding their own dash of ska-punk to the mix, they pretty much were responsible for flying the flag for mainstream modern punk music in the States.

It was certainly years before members of bands like Blink 182 or Busted even thought about picking up a guitar, or getting a tattoo done, that Noodles and co were carving out a sizeable niche of the alternative American music scene.

True, their golden days may be over, but listening to this it's easy to see why they were such a shot in the arm for the musically dispossessed on both sides of the pond in the late Nineties.

They rocked, sure enough, but in doing so they gave more than a nod towards other, perhaps less bozo-esque sensibilities. Pretty Fly For A White Guy - the band's biggest hit in the UK - is a no-nonsense riff-fest, yet the song's politics are not so much bubbling under the surface as spilling out all over the place.

As you would expect, this collection is chock full of the kind of classic "fast and furious" alt-rock - Want You Bad, Hit That or Gone Away - that made The Offspring the leaders in their field.