Like so much in my life, you can blame Fountains of Wayne and Silver Sun for this. Once power pop gets under your skin, it never really leaves — and Time Flies: 10 Years of Speedfossil is the sound of a band who understand that truth completely.
This isn’t a “best of” in the lazy sense. It’s a lovingly curated collection of demos, album tracks, remixes and remasters that charts a decade of doing things the right way: short songs, big feelings, melodic hooks, and an emotional honesty that never feels forced. If Speedfossil have passed you by so far, this is a dangerously good place to start.
The key to the whole thing might be the brand-new track and title cut, “Peg Leg”. Main man Dan says it’s about trying to move a relationship forward despite past failures — about learning, owning your mistakes, and trying to do better next time. That sentiment runs right through this compilation. The chorus isn’t so much a hook as a mantra: I’ll try not to f** it up less*. Less grand gestures, more quiet resolve.
From there, the collection unfolds like a perfectly sequenced mixtape. The 2025 remix of “Absent Minded” leans into a slightly slower, almost 60s-tinged feel, while “Silver Lining” is near-perfect power pop — the kind of song that makes optimism sound hard-won rather than naïve. “You Got A Lot Of Nerve” glows with harmonies, and “(You Won’t) See Me” keeps things loose, its solo wandering with a pleasing, slightly stoned charm.
One of Speedfossil’s great strengths is their ability to make timelessness sound effortless. “She’s Doing Fine” and “Pieces Of Eight” feel like songs that could’ve existed at almost any point in the last 40 years, the latter capturing every small, bruised detail of suburban love gone wrong. “Frozen Drops of Fire” carries a real melancholy in its guitar lines, while “Invisible” is lugubrious in the best way — resigned, reflective, and beautifully anchored by piano.
There are moments of pure fizz too. “I Can’t Wait” crackles with energy — like a three-year-old on a sherbet binge — and it’s perfectly placed, because it’s really about the joy of being in a band at all. “Hangin’ Around” is a three-minute punk explosion, “Livin’ The Dream” blows the doors open with brass, and “Lovely Lee” delivers 98 seconds of pure ebullience before disappearing again.
The demos are no afterthought. “Sweetheart” benefits hugely from being a duet, and “Luckiest Man In The World” carries a faint 80s pop sheen that only adds to its charm. Even at their rawest, these songs already know exactly what they are.
Speedfossil are probably a new band to you — and if that’s the case, there’s a lot to dig into here. Time Flies doesn’t just celebrate ten years of a band; it quietly makes the case for why they matter. No fuss, no hype, just songs that stick, linger, and keep finding new ways back into your head.
Here’s to the next ten years.
