Entertainment For Lively Minds
Artists who we preferred when we only owned their greatest hits…
The recent thread on the Clash set me thinking about all of those bands who I loved when I owned their greatest hits but as I gradually acquired their long players, my relationship deteriorated.
A prime example would be XTC. Fossil Fuel was like a bolt of lightning in my music collection, as though I had uncovered another dimension in pop history. Sadly similar thrills were few and far between on their long players (Skylarking had it’s moments but elsewhere the singles were massively superior)
Other examples are Queen (going from the near perfect Greatest Hits to the coke addled shams that were News Of the World and The Game was a major comedown), Elvis Costello (all his early albums are likeable rather than loveable), and Madness (same as Costello). In all of these examples, part of the problem is that the greatest hits are so perfect that going back to the albums will always disappoint. I should also note that in all of these cases, I discovered these artists back catalogues, largely through buying their greatest hits (I was too young for the material covered on Queen’s Greatest and Complete Madness, and most the singles on Elvis: The Man and Fossil Fuel didn’t get any radio play at the time of their original release)
Do the massive have any other examples (I know I’m going to shortly get a roasting from XTC and Costello fans!!)
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XTC
I'd rather play the whole of Oranges and Lemons than any greatest hits package of theirs.
Elvis Costello
I'd rather play the whole of King of America than any greatest hits package of his.
For greatest hits I might go for the Stranglers over any single album and perhaps Squeeze although their later albums, to me, seem more coherent and worthy of my full attention. In fact a number of the acts I used to listen to primarily from a singles perspective in my younger days have improved as album makers AFTER the hits dried up: to wit, Squeeze and Madness.
The Smiths are another interesting case in point. I could happily listen to both a greatest hits package and the majority of their albums in full. In fact Hatful of Hollow is probably The Smiths album I retunr to the most and it's simultaneously a compilation album of singles and a collection of "tracks".
Your choices of acts and their "hits" are interesting in that they sort of converge at around the early to mid 80s which was probably the last highpoint of singles and of acts that could deliver singles consistently to a high quality. But today I think there are hardly any acts that are capable of comparative musical merit to those you have highlighted and that would be capable of being compiled into a Greatest Hits package. These days concepts of "singles bands" and "album bands" seem to be lost in the overtly prescriptive commercialisation and homogenisation of everything as "product" irrespective of format and audience.
The Smiths
"Louder Than Bombs" is a perfect compilation..although Side One of "Stangeways" is an absolutely perfect run of songs from "A Rush" through "Stop Me" that leaves one wondering why oh why didn't they realise that although there was much discontent within the camp, they were still on top of their game and just might have produced even more greatness....Louder than Bombs works for me over a Greatest Hits model!
Louder and
Louder and Strangeways!!!
Absolutely the best collections of Smiths songs ever released. The b-sides on louder have stood the test of time better than many of the a-sides and I’d argue that Strangeways is perfect from start to finish (even Death at One’s Elbow has it’s place). As well as the quality of songs it is also perfectly sequenced.... and much, much better than Queen Is Dead!!
"Hatful of Hollow"
if only for the fact it has real drums on the BBC session tracks. Can't stand that gated drum reverb sound. Phil Collins and Hugh Padgham have a lot to answer for!
Conversely,
in the context of The Smiths' first album, I prefer the studio production - it adds more delicacy and resonance, rather than the dull thudding of the sessions. I know most disagree, including Morrissey and Marr, but they're wrong and I'm right. :-)
Thankfully
We have both to choose from.
You're right there
Greatest Hits compilations these days for Bands that emerged from the 90's onwards are not really Greatest Hits albums because of the demise of the charts. Instead they are usually hastily put together compilations of tracks that are regarded as the artists best.
The thing that puzzles me is the number of compilation albums that are put out for the same artist. Rod Steward has a large number of compilation albums. Even Richard Thompson - a 3 cd box set, a 6 cd box set and a single 'hits' package. With someone like RT I would imagine his initial sales are hardly groundbreaking so to come up with these collections I can't see that they are targeted at the casual listener.
Couldn't agree more with regards Queen...
If they'd put Under Pressure on their greatest hits album then it would have been perfect.
Costello
Funnily most of my favourite songs by him were album tracks and I happen to think the greatest hits/best ofs/whatever where Costello are concerned are the weakest collections.
Madness I can see what you mean, they are an amazing singles band and I don't think (apart from the latest album, and perhaps controversially Keep Moving)anything on their albums matches the singles.
Absolutely..
Of the artists I mentioned, yes, I think Costello probably holds up best as an albums act. But the thing is, when I got The Man on CD (in about 1989), I was like a kid in a candy shop. I didn’t really know his back catalogue (apart from Pils and Soap, Shipbuilding, Accidents Will Happen and Olivers Army) so to suddenly be introduced to Pump It Up, Detectives, Chelsea, New Lace Sleeves, Everyday I Write the Book, Green Shirt, High Fidelity, etc. was a pretty mind-blowing experience. I’ve subsequently come to know Trust, Blood and Chocolate and Get Happy and regard them all as decent long players but they have never given me the sheer joy that the greatest hits CD did.
With Madness – yes the new LP is splendid (though a very different experience from Complete Madness), but of the original six albums, Absolutely is the one that does it for me (far more consistent than the overrated One Step Beyond, and, Complete Madness aside, the best distillation of their early nutty sound)
It wasn't the first album of theirs
I bought, but give me The Cure's Standing on a Beach / Staring at the Sea compilation over one of their proper albums anyday of the week. Again, they were a great singles band when great singles mattered.
Really....
People buy Greatest Hits albums? How quaint!
Jesus & Mary Chain
21 singles proves them to be one of the best singles acts of the 80s/90s. Psychocandy is a remarkable album but not one I'm likely to want to sit through any time soon. The rest all have their moments away from their singles but great albums they're not.
I disagree
Psychocandy made the bigger impact, but Darklands, in all its brooding majesty, is the better album. Some of the B-sides collected on The Speed of Sound are more impressive than some of the later singles, IMHO.
Oooh...another 'Darklands' fan.
Absolute belter of an album. Not a duff track all the way through and the two weaker tracks are the interchangeable singles "Happy When It April Skies". Deep One Perfect Morning, the title track. Just brilliant. Stick "Sidewalking" and "Some Candy Talking" on there and you would have the best album of the 80's.
I also hold a bit of a candle for Automatic. Great songs on there too (Head On, Blues from a Gun), just wished they'd have hauled in a drummer rather than using a drum machine wished leant it that horrid tinny feel.
I agree with everything you say...
My "favourite band" for a while, i started going off them with Honey's Dead. But I recently went back to them and rediscovered Stoned And Dethroned - which is a great album.
The Byrds
Bought "History of the Byrds" on vinyl back in the late eighties when I was still in school and loved it, look at the track list for god's sake. Later on, when they reissued the cds and the prices went down, I bought up the original albums. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of very good stuff, on The Notorious Byrd Brothers and Sweetheart of the Rodeo in particular, but you're never too far from some hippy garbage about Dolphins, Spacemen or threesomes. (McGuinn and Crosby, I'm looking at you guys)
Cue Proustian Rush!
off to iTunes for a playlist
Oh.
I looked at the Wikipedia page you linked to, and realised as I was reading that track listing that it seemed very familiar. Quick saunter over to the shelf and yes, I already have it. Different sleeve, different title - "The Byrds' Greatest Hits" (how original.) Dutch pressing. It seems they repackaged it for some reason. My copy has the sleeve on the original, single greatest hits compilation ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Byrds%27_Greatest_Hits ), but is a double LP with the track listing you mention.
Younger Than Yesterday
is practically perfect, bar Mind Gardens. As for Triad - what's wrong with being sexy? It's a great song though the lyrics don't reflect my life in any way sadly.
Triad
the bit in that song that really annoys me is when he refers to the girl's mother, as in you should sleep with me because your mother says it's the wrong thing to do. Get the fuck off me Crosby, you fat hippy.
The Buzzcocks
are a band whose defining album is the compilation "Singles Going Steady" - in fact you could probably make the same point about many of the punk/post-punk bands: The Undertones, The Jam (some good albums but not as consistent as their singles output), Blondie (same as the Jam in that respect), Boomtown Rats.
Possibly slightly more controversially, I always find listening to "Hex Enduction Hour" (or any one of their 350 other studio albums) less rewarding than a compilation like "458489A" or "50000 Fall Fans..."
xtc
Apple Venus is one of the greatest albums of the past 15 years..it is musical,cohesive,humourous and is a lasting testament to Partridge's
creative mind and the wonderful "pop" stylings of Colin Moulding..it is a damn shame that they will probably not record together again!
Apple Venus is the
Apple Venus is the exception…
….but it did come out after Fossil Fuel. Volume Two (wasp star) was not as good.
Oh, I disagree.
'Wasp Star' is actually my favourite XTC album. Much more fun that 'Apple Venus' I reckon.
But hey, you know, I'm wrong about most things.
Having only fairly recently taken an interest in XTC
massive-prompted I started with Apple Venus and Wasp Star which are both excellent. Now that I'm working my way through their back catalogue their earlier albums are, to my mind, less consistent.
In other words I think everybody's right - you could have got most of their best stuff on the greatest hits... but then they came back with AV & WS which are their essential records, and should be consumed whole.
But There Are So Many Wonderful Album Tracks
From Drums and Wires through to Nonesuch
And 'Mummer'
is pretty good too. Often overlooked in the XTC canon.
Hey! I did say "most of"
One of my favourite collections of recent years is Saint Etienne's "London Conversations" two cds of the hits mixed with other finer moments compiled by the band themselves. If you owned nothing by this band this would be almost everything you could want. Of course I still gripe about the ommission of "Milk Bottle Symphony" but with any collection you're never going to please everybody...
I have this too.
Wonderful compilation.
A prime candidate in this context
is The Jam, surely?
Cue "Yes it is/no it isn't, and don't call me Shirley"
Well personally, I think that
All Mod Cons
Setting Sons
Sound Affects and
The Gift
are absolutely terrific albums from start to finish, but that's just me. They were the soundtrack to my teenage years - or at least part of it.
And most of the B-sides of the Jam's singles are clasics, too (Liza Radley, The Butterfly Collector, etc.)
Snap! is damn near perfect
If 'In the Crowd' was included, that would be that.
And The Doors.....but in reverse
A trudge through a Greatest Hits package with The Doors (with the obligatory picture of just one group member on the cover.....does that happen with any other act?) would be to trudge through the over familiar, the over long and songs that weren't 'hits' in Britain anyway.
However, all those two-and-a-half minute songs between the 'hits' on the albums are wonderful....
Yes The River Knows
Wintertime Love
Summer's Almost Gone
My Eyes Have Seen You
I Can't See Your Face In My Mind
You're Lost Little Girl
Unhappy Girl
Love Street
Wishful Sinful
Shaman's Blues etc. etc.
...excellent list ..just add..
...Hyacinth House
John Hiatt
Started with a greatest hit package and it's splendid.
Moved onto individual albums and heard little since to alter the view that I should have stopped at the compilation.
"Slow Turning" is such a brilliant album
that it's almost a greatest hits collection all by itself. Indeed, it hangs together better than any "Best of" collection could, as there's that marvellous unity of sound and feel there.
XTC and Costello
I don't agree their best tracks are on greatest hits packages with Get Happy and Imperial Bedroom alone Costello wrote albums that were comparable with his greatest hits, as for XTC there are many great tracks on their albums which were not on Fossil Fuel, for even more it might be worth your while buying Andy Partridges Fuzzy Warbles box set which is like an alternative history of XTC
This might go down like a bucket of cold sick...
... but I have always struggled with The Who beyond the Best Of.
Pretty much all you need to be fair...
Not much on their studio albums that have been missed by any retrospective. Maybe some of the earlier stuff "So Sad About Us", "Disguises", the cover of Heatwave and *some* bits from Tommy outside of Pinball Wizard (Acid Queen). Most of those were collected on the Maximum RnB box anyhow.
I can't listen to Who's Next, Quadrophenia, Who Are You, Who by Numbers all the way through. Outside of the singles, most of it is bollocks.
Bucket of sick!
no interest in Who's Next or Quadrophenia? Works of genius in my opinion but good luck to you, a decent Who compilation is a thing of wonder.
Yes, yes oh yes
I thought I loved The Who after starting with the best of, but then I started to invest time and effort in their albums and found them really lacking.
I love the Best of, I love the story of the band and I love John and Keith dearly but their other work doesn't do much for me at all.
God, that felt good.
Erm....
'The Who Sell Out'.
Possibly the best album of the 60s.....and, if so, definitely the best album of all time.
I'm not sure if I'm lowering the tone if I add
Take That, Kylie and Madonna. Never venture anywhere else within the catalogue.
There might be a good Madonna album
I was going to give 'Ray Of Light' as an example of a good Madonna album, but actually I think most of it was released as singles at some point.
I'm not sure I would buy a Madonna greatest hits, but I have that album and cherry-picked a couple of other tracks that I liked ('Dear Jessie', 'Like A Prayer' and 'What It Feels Like For a Girl').
Of course the joy of cherry-picking like that is you can make up your own greatest hits, but you won't discover anything new that way.
Madonna's Greatest Hits - Celebration...
Fantastic album - everything you'll ever need.
From Holiday through to 4 Minutes calling at all stops in between.
Just perfect.
*no Dear Jessie though. The pink elephants and lemonade couldn't make it.
If push comes to shove…
…Dear Jessie is my favourite Madonna song.
There were a spate of Beatles pastiche’s around this time (Sowing the Seeds of Love, When We Was Fab, The Miracle, anything by World Party) but Maddie pulled it off far more stylishly. The song often gets forgotten, or dismissed as a children’s song, but it is a pure distillation of pop joy.
Non US single
Apparently it was only released as a single in the UK and continental Europe, so that could be one of the reasons it's often overlooked.
I remember being a bit amazed by the video, but it was the late 80s and I was only about seven years old at the time.
Almost agree with everything you've said Walker,
except nothing tops "Into the Groove"
Here's Dear Jessie in all its bonkers glory.
Okay I’ll give you Into The Groove…
..that probably tops Dear Jessie.
As does Borderline now I come to think of it..
'Lady Madonna' is....
...pretty good.
It's the only one I like.
B-side's good, n'all.
Good old George.
Squeeze
'Singles 45 and Under' all the Squeeze I'll ever need.
But You Are Missing Out On So Much More
Especially The albums Argybargy, East Side Story and Play
In fact
You only need Squabs On Forty Fab (b-side to Labelled With Love, 30 flipping years ago!)
Creedence
Fantastic Greatest Hits album - the hits zip past. By contrast, Bayou Country drags its heels
Aah but
Willy and the Poor Boys is great from beginning to end, methinks.
Temptations..
I've got a terrific double LP with all their singles on it. Surely enough.
The World Won't Listen
Oft forgotten in The Smiths catalogue but arguably (to these ears) better than Louder than Bombs. Louder than Bombs had some of the "Smiths by numbers" tunes included for the American audience (was released on Sire, not RT) whereas TWWL was leaner, meaner and punchy.
* this *should* have appeared up there with The Smiths thread...
but, while we're at it,
The Beach Boys.
All the chuntering about Pet Sounds, it's not very good outside of Good Vibrations really, is it?
Plus it doesn't have California Girls, Surfing USA, Heroes and Villains or, cough, Kokomo on it!
Or
Good Vibrations...:)
*EDIT*
Wot STD said.
D'oh
..... :o{
But the average Best Of The Beach Boys
Won´t have anything from Sunflower on it. That´s a shortcoming in a sandpit if ever I saw one.
The Rolling Stones
to put the cat amongst the pigeons. Totally disagree with XTC and Costello. Most of my favourite tracks are non singles.
Yep, 40 Licks
covers all I'll ever want of The Stones and some. Except I wish it had Waiting On A Friend. Dammit.
40 Licks......
You only really need 20 Licks (the first CD) plus Start Me Up.
But you do miss Monkey Man, which is the best Stones song ever and some of the earlier stuff like Little Red Rooster.
S'pose if you buy 40 Licks plus Exile, you've pretty much covered off the Stones bases.
Nah
I'd choose the second CD every time, (but plus Gimme Shelter).
Blimey!
More contoversial than almost anything on the controversial music opinions thread
Why, thank you!
I'll go further: Beast Of Burden, Miss You and Emotional Rescue are the best songs on the comp. (And I like Losing My Touch).
Um.......
Not my cup of tea but everyone's ears are different.
Undercover of the Night sort of stands up though
ELO...
...Surely. And the double album is pushing it.
Abba, too.
Sorry Don't Agree
Both ELO and ABBA are so much more than their respective greatest hits especially ELO whose back list of great/good songs runs to about 80 tracks from various albums/ retrospectives see attached spotify playlist
http://open.spotify.com/user/marbles22/playlist/5r4hXvBjTe8TavX2JOTFCG
Thankyou...
...unfortunately I live in the land of the (Spotify) free.
Totally agree with some of you...
Elvis Costello especially... his best "greatest hits", if you like, was his own compilation 'Girls, Girls, Girls = $$$' (no pounds font in this part of the world). But my fave bands (apart from HJH) are The Replacements & Little Feat(Lowell George era) & A) The Replacements never had a greatest hit or ANY hit & B) The Lowell George Little Feat albums, are way superior to any compilation... (& don't even get me started on NRBQ, 'cos you Word fans, apart from the honourable exception, don't even want to know about them.. Aah well, your loss
UB40
I had their Best of in around 1988 and loved it. Buy an album of theirs? No chance.
This may have affected the Beautiful South as well. Their compilation was a massive, massive seller - way more than any of their albums.
Editions of ....Roxy Music…
Don’t get me wrong – Country Life, Stranded and For Your Pleasure are all fine albums. But the pure pop fix I got when I first heard Streetlife (20 Greatest Hits) was unrivalled. I guess the point of this thread is that there are bands where you get one version through hearing their best-ofs and a completely different perspective when you delve into the LPs. I love the “pop” Roxy more than I like the slightly darker Roxy that comes through on the LPs.
OMD and Tears For Fears
OMD greatest hits a particular guilty pleasure.
Wrongity…wrong wrong….
OMD’s first four albums are atmospheric masterpieces. There are several best of’s but in each case at least half of the collection is made up of the commercial nonsense they produced from ’84 onwards (Loccomotion actually has synthesised steel drums!!!). Don’t get me wrong, I love pop music, but the late 80s music industry formed a particularly unsuitable climate for any artists who favoured innovation
Agree re OMD
I love 80s pop singles but the OMD albums are on another plane. Almost as if the label said "yes, very nice but can we have a hit single?" And then they said "Oh all right then" and threw in Enola Gay.
In fact I wouldn't be surprised if that's what actually happened.
The Police
Every Breath You Take - The Singles is all you need and I loved listening to it when I was a nipper. Before Sting was an AOR cock and before I realised that I could never play anything Andy Summers can (how does he do it?)
For your consideration...
The Lovin' Spoonful-a good mixture of the singles and the best songs goes down a treat (John Sebastian wrote some of the best rhymes of the sixties, I think), but the original albums are very patchy as well as short.
Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac-the original albums are bitty and full of filler; Green's ability is best heard distilled onto a comp.
Also, I loved my old vinyl Seeds LP 'Evil Hoodoo' and still think it was more concentrated fun than listening to all of their four albums
And finally...Donovan. An acquired taste perhaps, but there have been some good comps. Yet when the original albums were reissued a few years back, they were fairly weak and didn't really have any overlooked classics on them.