Entertainment For Lively Minds
ATM - "Singles Bands"
Queen (who have got lot of “The Word” based attention lately) are often called a “Singles Band”. Personally I have never heard any albums by Queen and only really know them from their singles on the radio (and to be honest I don’t like many of these either).
Is this “Singles Band” assertion true?
Other groups (off the top of my head) who could also be described this way are ABBA, The Bee Gees and Madness.
Are there any other groups whose singles releases are considered to be their best work?
Are there any truly good album tracks by any of these artists?
Are there any examples of great albums (in your opinion) being misrepresented by bad choices of singles?
I await your words of wisdom, collective knowledge and experiences.
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The Jam
Unparalled run of superb singles (and some B sides)but never really made a coherent album (All Mod Cons and Sound Effects coming closest).
Some decent album tracks (It's Too Bad, Ghosts etc) but the singles were everything
The jam
Not with you on all mod cons, I think it stands up as a good body of work in its own right, but apart from that, I am broadly in agreement.
English Rose
Fly, The Place I Love, cover of David Watts...
too much iffy filler for me.
All Mod Cons-The Gift
I couldn't be without all of that run, apart form Planners Dream which I loathe.
Fly and Place I Love are two of my favourite Jam songs!
Setting Sons
Great album in my humble opinion, and a real 'album'.
Almost used the word 'concept' as well.
Almost.
My thought too
as I read they had no coherent album. Even Bruce's track, Smithers-Jones is a decent effort.
The production leaves a bit to be desired though.
Good question.
I quite like the earlier (1970s) Queen, couldnt manage any whole albums in the 80s & beyond.
some of those albums tho, were superb IMHO.
Queen 1, 2, Sheer heart attack, ANATO, all superb. (all 1970s)
Singles bands /
From my youth, I couldnt name a single album by the Tremeloes, Hermans Hermits or the Hollies, but they all made some fine single.
Into the 70s, couldnt name a Sweet / Suzi Q/ Mud album, but likewise, all makers of fine singles.
I would agree about Madness, but TLONF went & spoiled things a little.
Maddonna - Much the same
I am sure there are many more, but they just jumped into my head.
Madonna.
Good call! The Immaculate Collection is absolutely excellent, and should be owned by everyone with ears. She's done some great singles since - Music, Ray of Light, Beautiful Stranger, Hung Up - but you're best off buying The Immaculate Collection and adding to it with those individual tracks. That really is all the Madonna you need, and it's life-enhancing.
*continues cheerfully banging pop-obsessed head against the Massive's folk-prog drawbridge*
Don't worry, Bob
I'm also a comrade-in-arms in the great Pop/Prog stand-off :-).
Re: Madge, I would argue that in addition to the great singles, Like A Prayer and Ray Of Light stand up as outstanding albums.
Celebration
Is the definitive Madge package and probably all you need - though Like A Prayer stands alone and has the brilliantly bonkers Dear Jessie on it, which doesn't appear on either hits package..
Collects all the 80's and early 90's gems and adds the singles from Ray of Light, Music, Confessions on the Dancefloor and Hard Candy. It is poptastic.
Wasn't 'Immaculate Collection'
remixed? Therefore not the original single versions and mixes. The mardy cow
Was a funny mix...
Was mixed in a pseudo Quadrophonic sound IIRC - will check when I get home. Definitely had weird mixes of Into the Groove and Like A Prayer.
The original single mixes were restored on Celebration.
Good, might get that
next time I'm out and about
Was £3 in HMV last week
Think it was the double disc too.
Doubt this was on it
Great Madonna album track (Spanish Eyes):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&v=Qvtx--dpjN4
New Order
Especially in the early days. Their strongest album is unquestionably Substance.
Noooooooooo..........!
Power Corruption and Lies
Technique
Republic
all great great albums
Substance
The only New Order album I own. Bought especially for the 'substance version' of Temptation, which is in my top ten songs by anybody anywhere. But that version specifically.
Yesssss.....!
:-)
I love PCL & Technique (especially PCL, as it was my teenage 'comfort' album) but don't thimk either of them are as consistently strong as Substance.
Republic a "great, great album"? It starts very strongly (Regret, World, Ruined in a Day, Spooky) but goes downhill pretty rapidly after that. Only my opinion of course.
Isn't this though akin to saying that...
The Beatles Red and Blue Albums are better than Rubber Soul, Abbey Road and AHDN? 40 Licks better than Let it Bleed and Beggars Banquet?
PCL and Technique (taking your point about the dip at the end of Republic) stand alone as five star records and overall sequenced pieces.
Ecstasy & 586 and Love Less & Mr Disco work just as well on those records as You Never Give Me Your Money, Dr Robert and Monkey Man do on their parent albums.
I suppose so...
...but, then again, so many of NO's great singles weren't on the contemporary albums (Ceremony, Procession / Everthing's Gone Green, Temptation, Blue Monday, Confusion, Thieves Like Us / Lonesome Tonight, True Faith / 1963) that Substance didn't feel like a selection of tracks from other albums when it first came out.
I think my original point was that NO had a string of fabulous early singles that weren't on albums and that made them a great singles band. I do happen to think that Substance (especially my rickety old cassette version that has *all* the a-sides and b-sides on it, including Murder, Mesh, Dub-Vulture etc. etc. that were not on the CD) is their best album; but, like you, I love PCL and Technique too. I'm also very fond of Low-Life, Brotherhood and Republic. I can take or leave Movement. A couple of very strong singles aside (again!), I have no time at all for the last two albums.
i'm with you
Some great album tracks but their truly great and most enduring work was on 12" singles. I speak as a big fan of the WIMHM .
Ash.
As I've said before, all you really need of theirs is "Intergalactic Sonic 7s", their singles collection from a few years ago. The albums are fine, but the singles when listened to back-to-back are absolutely bloody brilliant.
Was just coming on
to post the same thing.
Blondie
There are a few good album tracks but a Greatest Hits is all you need really.
I would guess the same goes for Madonna, though I haven't listened to many of her albums.
Agreed.
I like Parallel Lines, but really and truly you can do a lot worse than their collection "Atomix".
Disagree
The first four albums were the first four albums I ever owned. And side 1 of Eat To The Beat is one of my favourite sequences of songs by anybody ever. Tucked away in the middle of that side is a track called Shayla, which is my all time favourite Blondie track.
The Smiths
definitely were a singles band. It's just that the albums were marvellous as well.
Eez true.
I have all the albums and many of the compilations. Love them all. But one of my favourite Smiths albums is definitely "Singles".
Are you, in fact,
Alan Partridge in disguise?
"Best of the Beatles."
Now. Where are my Wings albums?
But seriously, "Singles" is a marvellous collection in its own right.
Blur, Bowie, Stones
(Assembles parachute in anticipation of enemy fire)
Good thread
What about Squeeze? 45s and Under - absolutely marvelous. The couple of proper albums I've heard - less so.
The Stranglers. I don't think the albums are dispensible but I gather from a recent thread that many do.
Squeeze for sure
Great individual stand-alone songs on 45 RPM vinyl. I probably like East Side Story best of their albums but even that is based on the quality of the singles contained therein.
Squeeze
They released two late great albums with Play (1991) and Some Fantastic Place (1994). Play was their only album for Warners and has disappeared over the last 20 years. I see it's on Spotify. Try this folks:
http://open.spotify.com/track/21mUwPhxK41u9gKckHeTUi
Squeeze again
I would recommend East Side Story and Argybargy. OK - they're by no means perfect, but you'd miss out on some cracking songs if you only listened to the singles e.g. Piccadilly, Misadventure, Vicky Verky, Separate beds, In quintessence and probably others I can't recall without walking the 3 metres to get the CDs off the shelf.
Cliff
The Hollies, Hot Chocolate, Westlife.
I don't think anyone but the most committed fan or Fred Dellar would have the first idea what of their albums are called (apart from "Greatest Hits).
Singles Bands
Hmmm. I used to think I was a big fan of the (cliche) Singles bands, and would quite easily name just compilations as favourite albums. And yet I love all The Jam albums, some of my favourite songs by Madness are album tracks.
I could do without anything other than the Pet Shop Boys singles though, and Squeeze's singles up until Annie Get Your Gun, as collected on 45s and Under is all I need of them, as an exploration of their albums led me to discover (disappointingly).
I would argue that most people wouldn't need anything other than The Stones' singles too, but The Kinks, who I would also describe as a classic singles act had some fantastic albums.
My favourite Pulp album is the Intro one, which is a singles (3 of them!) compilation, complete with b-sides. I think it's by far and away the best thing they ever did.
How about...
... The Police, Sting, The Boomtown Rats, Duran Duran, The Wedding Present (in 1992, ho ho)...
The 'Oo.
Blindingly great singles, albums so-so. Yes, Who's Next is a great album. Apart from Who's Next. More of a singles band than an albums band, then. Meaty Beaty Big And Bouncy is their best album, which is a bunch of singles.
the best!!
Have you forgotten about 'the Who Sell Out', 'Tommy', 'Quaddrophenia' and 'the Who by Numbers'? And who would dare argue against 'My Generation' as the best ever debut album?
I would. It isn't.
But it is very good. Better than "Quad" if I'm honest. (sorry Pete)
Probably most bands in reality
and probably only a couple of singles
The Wurzels have yet to be mentioned.
Was looking at ABBA albums
in Fopp yesterday cos all the deluxes CD\DVD versh were only a tenner. But there seemed a hell of a lot of crap around the sweetcorn. The DVDs looked good though
Oh as for Madness - the Rise and Fall, Norton Folgate and Absolutely are all cracking albums
Whilst the early Abba albums
contain filler like King Kong Song, Pick A Bale Of Cotton and Hey Hey Helen, their later ones are fantastic.
Voulez Vous is a fine disco-tinged collection. Abba the album and Arrival are pretty strong and their bleak finale The Visitors hangs together as much as an album as Sgt Pepper or Pink Moon. It's beautifully sad.
'Ver Mode'
Depeche Mode - for me a better singles band than album band... Violator excepted!
How about
Prince?
Glam bands
Glitter, Slade, Sweet, Glitter Band, Quatro, Barry Blue, etc. - their brilliant singles are all you need.
and T.Rex
Electric Warrior and Tanx never really held together.
Oh No
Not Electric Warrior! I love every song apart from the last one (Rip Off). And it flows like an album too. Agree with you on Tanx and all other Bolan LPs.
T rex - rip off
I think Rip off is the best thing young Master Bolan ever did.
Actually what you need...
...is a Glam Greatest Hits collection cos few reached more than a handful of great singles. But many had a few great singles.
Many, many glittery moons ago
I bought this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Glam-Rock-Album-Ever/dp/B00000FYGO/ref=sr_...
Which was a help when I made a history of glam playlist from this excellent book:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Children-Revolution-Dave-Thompson/dp/1901447472...
Glam is the ultimate singles genre.
Slade have been recently remastered
Their hits album Sladest is difficult to listen to for any length of time. One full-on single after another is just too much. However, Slayed! is a beautifully paced album, designed to be listened to in one sitting (with a pause to turn the vinyl over). It doesn't actually need the two singles on it. Plus, Slade Alive! is simply one of the best live albums ever.
Pink Floyd:
"Arnold Layne," "See Emily Play," "One of These Days," "Money," "Us and Them / Time" (double A-side), "Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)." No wonder they released a compilation called, "A Collection of Great Dance Songs."
Dream Theater
had the wit and self-deprecation to call their retrospective: "Greatest Hit (& 21 Other Pretty Cool Songs)." 1 hit but a very succesful career.
Singles? Albums?
What are you old fogeys on about?
The Pretenders?
Only putting this cos you never see much discussion of their albums. Please prove me wrong!
Pretenders fist album ..
...was absolutely excellent throughout, even the slightly odd instrumental "Space Invaders" which has a fabulous introduction. The track Private Life (also covered extremely well by Grace Jones, and never a sinlge) is a stunner.
Have to agree
In fact the first two Pretenders albums have lots of good stuff although they're rather let down by stodgy production IMHO.
If they haven't done it already a remastered cd release would be a good idea.
I'd like to put forward The Yardbirds as a singles band since, to the best of my memory, they only ever released one studio album (always known, due to the cartoon on the cover, as Roger The Engineer).
The Stranglers.
And Status Quo. Although Quo have got a few cracking album tracks as well. Forty Five Hundred Times springs to mind.
The Beatles
You only really need "One". Never made a completely satisfying album, there's always a crap comedy song or self indulgent studio pouncing about number around the corner.
psst - Twang, old chap...
you dropped this...
Indeed
I was feeling arsey after lunch and couldn't help myself. Apols mop top fans.
Oh
and there was me agreeing with you. (Then again, One *is* the only Beatles album I own...)
Clarification
I'm not saying I changed my mind...just looked vaguely trollish give the affection for the lads from Liverpool in these parts.
One x 2 = 2
Not if you're Robert Miles..
Buzzcocks
I can't believe that I've got this far down (I even did a search of the page to make sure!) without a mention of the Buzzcocks.
Maybe because...
...the albums are great as well?
Lieutenant Pigeon?
.
Soul
Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding released at least one top drawer album but their singles collections are indispensible.
As a label Motown was singles oriented until Marvin and the Temptations came along.
The Reynolds Girls
Unarguably.
Supergrass
I think their singles are always the best tracks on their albums and was delighted when they eventually released Supergrass is 10 with all the greats stuck together.
Of a different vintage, I think Sly & the Family Stone were a great singles band. I can take or leave their albums especially the much-lauded There's a riot going on but their singles compilations are pure gold - every track.
Oooh no. In It For The Money is belting. 5* in Q.
Amen.
Ditto all of their albums except the X-Ray one.
Small Faces
I don't think their albums work, notwithstanding Stanley Unwin. The singles are wall-to-wall gold.
Girls Aloud
Sugababes
Spice Girls, maybe.
Girls Aloud's albums
are better than you'd think. As are Billy Fury's.
GA
Some great album tracks by Girls Aloud. This one for instance:
Do you think
It might have a teeeeeny debt to Sunday Girl by Blondie?
Not far off
Like a Blondie track over a Ringo drum beat, but whatever the mix it works for me, one of my favourite tracks of the last few years. Seriously.
Mmm
Part of me (the Alana Partridge bit, obv) would say that EVERY band is best heard via the singles collection, but even obvious singles bands like Abba had two or three very good LPs.
However, as Jimmyshoes says up there, soul is a whole genre that is, with some honourable exceptions (Marvin, Aretha's first four Atlantic releases, Al Green, etc etc) best heard on compilations.
Yup
I'm with you there, I love my soul, but there isn't a soul album, apart from maybe Al Green Gets Next To You that I listen to as an album, not even Marvin or Stevie. Except for the compilations that is. Motown Chartbusters for instance, perhaps the finest run of albums by anybody.
Isaac Hayes - Hot Buttered Soul
Great album.
Also Stevie's imperial phase of Talking Book, Innervisions and Songs in the Key of Life all hang together magnificently.
The Police
Never really "got" the albums - too much white-reggae-skwaky-singing-odd-time-signature stuff.
Having said that, I haven't heard one for ages - must go back to confirm my memory
Absolutely right about the albums
Unfortunately the same applies to the singles.
The Kinks
All their albums are tedius. Yes! Even that one.
Their singles on the other hand are outstanding up to and including Lola.
Disagree
Village Green, Lola vs Powerman, Arthur
Excellent albums.
Village Green is THAT one
Always brings on the rolled eyes and the yawns in our house. I think it's the relentless third person descriptions of characters that makes it come over all twee.
Disagree the second
Singles-wise, there's nowt wrong with Apeman, God's Children, 20th Century Man, Celluloid Heroes, Better Things or Come Dancing.
Face to Face
...and Something Else are both GREAT albums, sitting comfortably alongside contemporaries like Aftermath, Revolver, If You Believe Your Eyes and Ears etc
Chuck
Given that he was only afforded the one 50s LP, Chuck Berry surely qualifies via his pre-prison run of 45s on London-American (and 'Schoolday' on Columbia).
The sting in the tail is that only two were (relatively minor) hits.
'You Can't Catch Me'.
'Roll Over Beethoven'.
'Rock And Roll Music'.
'Carol'.
'Almost Grown'.
'Johnny B. Goode'.....
None of them charted in Britain.
Led Zeppelin
I find their singles enough for my personal tastes
Yep!
Their only proper single (not promos, the one that was withdrawn) has just about the only Led Zep song I like on the b-side, 'Livin' Lovin' Maid'.
OOAA.
The Smiths
Not a popular view, I'm sure, but I've always found The Smiths very much a 'Singles Band'. There are very few of their album tracks that I'd rate as highly as their singles, which I find pretty much uniformly excellent. I'm somewhat disappointed that a second remastered Singles box set hasn't been released yet, but an album collection has - mind you, I'll probably buy that too at some stage.