Hugh Dillon must be in a very good mood, or rather, a great mood.

During a phone interview, the buoyant frontman for Canadian rock group The Headstones actually uses the word great more than any other word -- including expletives.

Topping his list of positivity, quite fittingly, is the band's current best-of compilation The Greatest Fit, which they're supporting with a show Thursday at the Back Alley.

The disc features sonically spruced-up tracks from the band's decade-long career, as well as two new songs, Blowtorch and Come On, which Dillon wrote and recorded this summer.

"This is a great experience," Dillon says.

"To be able to write, record and release that fast is amazing. It will probably never happen like that again.

"It's just so satisfying, it just makes everything worthwhile."

The two new tracks fit nicely in with the best of The Headstones' repertoire, recalling a little Iggy Pop in their raggedness.

"These songs show the direction we're going in. Kind of a prelude to the next record," Dillon says, guesstimating a new Headstones release should hit shelves early next year.

The songs, most specifically Come On, also show the direction of Dillon's mental health.

Featuring lines like "It's the only moment that counts is right now," it's a sober proclamation of Dillon's new lust for life.

"I think that's why that song was so exciting to write and have down," he says.

He is, he says, still a drug-free zone, and the experience is one he's still jonesing for.

"It's just a horror show when you find yourself unbearable to yourself," he says.

"I pity people who have horrible chemical dependencies and they don't know how to get out of it.

"I was lucky because I was teachable and I got some education. Some people just sit in that world and they don't know where to go."

Other than his body and his creativity, the direct beneficiaries of his new headspace have been his bandmates.

Dillon admits that when he was using he wasn't a treat to be around, and relationships within The Headstones suffered as a result.

Now, things are -- oh, OK -- great, and the four friends are spending more time being friends than just guys who get together when it's time to go to work

"It just feels like something's changed in this band," Dillon says.

"Everybody's excited to be on the road, everybody's happy, everybody's getting along beautifully -- it's great.

"Lately we've made real efforts to communicate, because a while back we thought, we've been friends for so long, and if we don't work on our friendship like any other relationship, it's going to fall apart."