Entertainment For Lively Minds
Favourite Compilation Album...
Posted by Formbyman on 16 November 2011 - 11:21am.
... I know we're all sick of lists - so just your one absolute favourite compilation (various artists) album. Mine's:-
Deutsche Elektronische Musik/Experimental German Rock and Electronic Music 1972-83/Soul Jazz Records
Highly recommended for Krautrock virgins.
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I'm not doing this to annoy anyone, I promise.
But as I've mentioned before, the Massive's bête blonde, Jo Whiley, put her name to an amazing compilation at the end of the 90s called INCredible Sound Of Jo Whiley. (IIRC, Gilles Peterson did one too, as did a couple of other DJs).
Regardless of what we may think of La Whiley (please keep it to yourself, just this once), it's a great comp. I still play it to this day.
Cannonball (Breeders)
Leave Home (Chemical Brothers)
Beat Dis (Radio Edit) (Bomb The Bass)
Rez (Underworld)
Birthday (Sugarcubes)
78 Stone Wobble (Gomez)
Drinking In LA (Bran Van 3000)
Fragments Of Life (Roy Vedas)
It Came From The Ground (Badly Drawn Boy)
Stutter (Elastica)
Flagpole Sitta (Harvey Danger)
Goddess On A Hiway (Mercury Rev)
A Little Soul (Pulp)
Your Ghost (Kristin Hersh)
Shorley Wall (Ooberman)
Bad Old Man (Baby Bird)
Ring Of Fire (Johnny Cash)
The Man Who Loved Beer (Lambchop)
Open Up (Leftfield)
Right Here, Right Now (Fatboy Slim)
Fun Lovin' Criminals (Fun Lovin' Criminals)
Buffalo Gals (Malcolm McLaren)
Poison (95 EO) (Prodigy)
Caught By The Fuzz (Supergrass)
You Don't Care About Us (Placebo)
Quality Seconds (Orbital)
You Love Us (Manic Street Preachers)
Come Out 2Nite (Kenickie)
One More Hour (Sleater-Kinney)
Young Parisians (Adam And The Ants)
Beauty Of The Ride (Sebadoh)
El President (Drugstore)
Superstar (Superstar)
She Cries Your Name (Beth Orton)
The Masterplan (Oasis )
Iceblink Luck (Cocteau Twins)
Safe From Harm (Massive Attack)
Mr Bojangles (Nina Simone)
I have both
Whiley's and Peterson's and still listen to them every couple of months. The copy of Peterson's that I have on vinyl is battered after being pulled out of my record bag repeadedly when playing out:
Disc: 1
1. Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow - Funkadelic
2. Baila Piena (Off World Remix) - Papo Vazquez
3. The Salon Section - Buscemi
4. I Can See The Future (Ski'sa Main Mix) - Incognito
5. I Am The Black Gold Of The Sun (4 Hero Remix) - Nu Yorican Soul
6. Nuther'n Like Tuther'n - Willis Jackson
7. Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf - (Part 2) Jimmy Smith
8. If The Papes Come - A Tribe Called Quest
9. Upa Neguinho - Luiz Arruda Paez
10. Mas Que Nada - Elze Soares
11. Picadillo - (Carl Craig's Breakdown Mix) Johnny Blas
12. Coro Miyare - Fania All-Stars
13. Skindo Le Le - Alive!
14. See The Light - Eddie Russ
15. Let The Sun Shine In - Sons And Daughters of Lite
16. Spread Love - Lenny Fontana presents Black Sun
Disc: 2
1. Rejoice - Pharaoh Sanders
2. Flower - (The Underwater Garden Dub) (aka Scuba Mix) - Soul Dhamma
3. Messages (Main Mix) - Critical point featurung Vikter Duplaix
4. Little Sunflower - Freddie Hubbard
5. I See - (Vocal) MJ Cole
6. Bird Song - Underwolves
7. River Man - Andy Bey
8. Ohio - The Isley Brothers
9. Le Fleur - Minnie Riperton
10. The Truth - Handsome Boy Modelling School featuring Roisin of Moloko & J-Live
11. Your Revolution - DJ Vadim featuring Sarah Jones
12. Autumn In New York - Arthur Blythe
This is a superb compilation
Was stunned to see the inclusion of. Roy Vedas' Fragments Of Life, which I have on CD single and have never heard even mentioned elsewhere, let alone played. Interestingly, the vocoder vocal was just before Cher's Believe, although I think Believe narrowly beat it on the sales front.
P.s. I like Jo Whiley. I think she is an excellent presenter, knows her stuff and most of the negative comments I have read about her I find hard to fathom.
Fragments of Life
What a great song that is. :-)
Two that I always come back to.....
Soundtrack to "That Summer" - full of Boomtown Rats, Ian Dury, Wreckless Eric, Patti Smith, Elvis Costello and so on....
http://www.discogs.com/Various-That-Summer/release/780184
Soundtrack to Trainspotting... - full of Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Underworld's fabulous Born Slippy, Pulp, Blur etc...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trainspotting_(soundtrack)
A second volume is also available which doesn't quite hit the high spots but comes close....
That Summer
"Soundtrack to "That Summer" - full of Boomtown Rats, Ian Dury, Wreckless Eric, Patti Smith, Elvis Costello and so on...."
Great album when it came out- had yellow vinyl if I remember rightly- though I'm sure that it has been the basis for every "punk" compilation ever since.
That Summer
Is a great compilation and I am one of the very few people who actually saw the film. The record's better.
Deutsche Elektronische Musik
OP - That is a fantastic album! I put together a Spotify playlist with about half the tracks (I think a lot of them are so obscure they're not on Spotify) :
http://open.spotify.com/user/qidevrich/playlist/50QawZTfegRpUSLhP7N97W
One of my greatest discoveries on Spotify is the 'What It Is! Funky Soul and Rare Grooves [1967-1977]'. Everything from Aretha to Bobby Byrd to Dr John and Allen Toussaint.
I'll check that out...
... I've got "The Stax Story" and "Atlantic Soul Classics" - both excellent.
Genre compilations
This thread from last week covered lots of the same ground, with loads of good suggestions.
Also, the album referred to in the OP, is available here: http://www.souljazzrecords.co.uk/releases/?id=18676
rebirth of cool
a series of CDs complied by the very wonderful Patrick Forge, introduced me to a number of subsequent favourites including Manchester Band "Chapter and Verse" sublime
Phil Spector's
A Christmas Gift For You.
Best compilation, best artists, best production. In fact, best album ever.
Axe Attack
Superb Compilation
The first (of many) Heavy Metal compilations I owned
Volume 2 is OK, but not patch on this.
The back of the cover this should contain the instruction PLAY LOUD
(Goes away and plays CD copy)
Axe Attack Vol 2 advert. I feel old watching this!
memories
Ah yes, I remember these when they came out. I had one on original cassette tape and my mate taped me the other one. I was lucky enough to find the vinyl versions in Soho record shops a few years ago and keep them safe in a plastic cover. I consider them a relic of a bygone age from a little corner of the music industry: heavy metal for beginners.
All brilliant tunes too. I have since seen most of the bands live at some stage and have owned all the albums that the songs came from. So "Axe Attack", my education and my parents gave me the best start in life any boy could wish for.
The best track from both is "Flesh and Blood" from the album Scream Dream by Ted Nugent. You rarely hear mad crazy US metal stuff like that anymore.
Meridian 1970
as discussed here before.
Plus, Gather In The Mushrooms
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gather-Mushrooms-Various-Artists/dp/B0001MXRKM/r...
And perhaps my favourite ever, Tea and Symphony, the English baroque pop treasure trove.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tea-Symphony-English-Baroque-1967-1974/dp/B000S9...
I think both of these are from the same label. Anyone know of any other comps by them (apart from Early Morning Hush)?
Soft spot for this too:
The Dutch glam rock scene.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Clap-Your-Hands-Stamp/dp/B001VB9530/ref=sr_1_1?s...
Woah!
Have you been looking at my CD shelves? These 3 are the in the top ten of my Comps! And T&S is £70 on Amazon!!!
Motown Chartbusters Volume 3
Shiny silver cover, starts with I Heard it through the Grapevine and ends with Tracks of my Tears. Given to me in a box of records by a family friend when I was 11 it was my introduction to Motown and is still my favourite album. Also an integral part of courting Mrs T 20 plus years ago.
2 of the other records in that box were Harry Secombe's Bless This House and The Music and Sounds of the Queen's Silver Jubilee. Never kept those.
Funkin' on the 1
Five disc funk explosion, how could you possibly you live without it ?
A complete
introduction to Northern Soul, the universal compilation (2008), is never far away.
Have an up...
...for that one, sir! I too keep that one close by me at all times.
Don't Walk, Boogie
Played it to death as a kid.
http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=771550
A1 A Taste Of Honey – Boogie Oogie Oogie
A2 Tavares – More Than A Woman
A3 Sheila B. Devotion* – Singin' In The Rain
A4 Macho – I'm A Man
A5 Evolution (14) – Summer In The City
A6 Patsy Gallant – From New York To L.A.
A7 Gonzalez – Just Let It Lay
A8 Tavares – Whodunit
A9 Gloria Jones – Bring On The Love (Why Can't We Be Friends Again)
A10 Clout – Substitute
B1 La Belle Epoque – Black Is Black
B2 Marshall Hain – Dancing In The City
B3 Sylvester – You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)
B4 Tavares – Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel
B5 Matumbi – Empire Road
B6 Jesse Green – Nice And Slow
B7 Sun (7) – Sun Is Here
B8 T. Rex – I Love To Boogie
B9 John Forde – Stardance
B10 Tom Robinson Band – 2-4-6-8 Motorway
Hmmm... Good question.
For me, it would have be one of the following:
Metal For Muthas - the compilation that defined NWOBHM
Pillows And Prayers - odd as I normally avoid anything smacking of 'indie', but there's something about this
Morgan Fisher's Miniatures - MF went through his contact book and asked everyone to submit a piece of music lasting no more than 1 minute. He them sequenced them into a magical, hypnotic continuum.
Metal for Muthas
That was my first compilation closely followed by Axe Attack.
From Metal for Muthas this was always my favourite.
Formula 30
The Business!
http://www.discogs.com/Various-Formula-30/release/903957
A1 Rolling Stones, The - Honky Tonk Women
A2 Rod Stewart - Maggie May
A3 Free - All Right Now
A4 Spencer Davis Group, The - Keep On Running
A5 Roxy Music - Virginia Plain
A6 Derek & The Dominoes* - Layla
A7 Jeff Beck - Hi Ho Silver Lining
A8 Dexys Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen
B1 Rolling Stones, The - Satisfaction
B2 Status Quo - Rockin' All Over The World
B3 B.T.O.* - You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet
B4 Blondie - Call Me
B5 Who, The - Substitute
B6 Small Faces, The* - Sha La La La Lee
B7 Zombies, The - She's Not There
B8 Procul Harum* - A Whiter Shade Of Pale
C1 Rolling Stones, The - Let's Spend The Night Together
C2 Roxy Music - Love Is The Drug
C3 Ike & Tina Turner - Nutbush City Limits
C4 Eric Clapton - I Shot The Sheriff
C5 Dire Straits - Sultans Of Swing
C6 Stranglers, The - Golden Brown
C7 Thunderclap Newman - Something In The Air
D1 Rolling Stones, The - Jumpin' Jack Flash
D2 Status Quo - Caroline
D3 Who, The - Pinball Wizard
D4 Elton John & Kiki Dee - Don't Go Breaking My Heart
D5 Rod Stewart - You Wear It Well
D6 Moody Blues, The - Nights In White Satin
D7 10 CC* - I'm Not In Love
I still have it on vinyl - four top Stones tracks, it couldn't fail could it?
Proustian
That is SOME mainstream collection- I'm not saying that in a bad way!
Casting my eyes down the list made me think of how much time in my life those songs have taken up?
Even at a (very conservative) guess of 30 listens each, at 4 minutes a song, that's 60 hours. And some of those songs must have been heard way over a 100 times each...
Mind you, I've not heard more than 5 seconds of Hi Ho Bloody Silver Lining for more than 40 years, as I can't abide it, so that should take the overall time in my life down a bit.
Mainstream as you could want
When this cropped up in a thread a couple of years ago - prompted by Lenny i think - I thought to myself, 'I really must digitise the vinyl of this one'. I then realised that I had all but two of the tracks elsewhere in m y collection. Two Status Quo downloads later and I had myself a playlist!
I suspect that in my case, your estimate of 100 times each is significantly on the low side. BTW The album was released in 1983 - although many of the tracks were somewhat older.
100
is a very low estimate for some of the tracks- Stones, Free, Roxy, Procul all been given way more listens I'm sure.
Out of interest, what do the asterisks next to some tracks indicate?
Had to go back to the vinyl...
...to check that out. Not much help, I'm afraid. The asterisks don't figure on the vinyl and it's hard to see any obvious rationale.
There is, however, a wonderful sleeve note: "All tracks selected with your neighbours in mind. For maximum inter-wall sonority, play it loud".
So many
and all reggae or 'dance'. If I had to plump for one....
Blazing The Crop: mixed by Rae and Christian
"Play On" (Watch Out for This! Mix) - Rae & Christian (featuring Jungle Brothers)
"Funky for You" (Spacehopper Mix) - Deadbeats
"Planetary Deadlock" - Beanfield
"S and M on the Rocks" - Swollen Members
"Can't Stop" - Constant Deviants / "Crazy Rhymin" (A Capella) - Only Child (featuring Kriminul)
"Me and Him" - Porn Theatre Ushers / "Ain't Got Time to Waste" (A Capella) - Aim (featuringYZ)
"All My People" (Body Rock Party Break) - Mos Def / "Ain't Got Time to Waste" (A Capella) - Aim (featuringYZ)
"Just Passin' Through" - Aim
"For Claudia" - Face & Feline
"Spandex Man" - Mr Scruff
"Time to Shine" - Rae & Christian
"People" - Riton
"Rock" - DJ Spinna
"My Part of Town" - Tuff Crew
"Get a Move On" - Mr Scruff
"Bacalau" - Rae & Christian
"Young and Holtful" - Young-Holt Unlimited
Ballistic Sureshots
The Jolly Brothers - Conscious Man
Psalms - Prophecy
Trinity - Why Cant I Dub You
Alton Ellis - Im Still In Love With You
Lloyd Lovindeer - Holy Holy Holy
The Naturals - Falling In Love Again
Psalms - Always Trying
The Royals - Peace And Love
Prodigal Creator - Life Part 2
The Naturals - Marijuana
Brilliant 1970s reggae comp. If you can't find this one, then the one called Ballistic Breakouts is almost as good.
Anything Trojan
aside from the peerless Spector comp I mentioned earlier, the Trojan CD compilation issues are a treasure trove.
Trojan Mod
Trojan Ska
Trojan Dub
Trojan Beatles
All fantastic releases, all dirt cheap from your local emporium.
London Is The Place For Me
Honest Jon's compilations are all good but the 1st volume is a must
Trinidadian Calypso In London, 1950-56
Lord Kitchener - London Is The Place For Me
Young Tiger - I Was There (At The Coronation)
Lord Beginner - Mix Up Matrimony
Lord Kitchener - My Landlady
Lord Kitchener - Kitch's Bebop Calypso
Lord Beginner - Victory Test Match
Lord Kitchener - Birth Of Ghana
Lord Invader - Aguiti
Lord Beginner - Jamaica Hurricane
Lord Kitchener - Kitch in The Jungle
Mighty Terror - No Carnival In Britain
Lord Kitchener - The Underground Train
Lord Beginner - Housewives
The Lion - Some Girl Something
Lord Kitchener - Saxophone Number 2
Lord Beginner - Fed-A-Ray
Timothy - Bulldog Don't Bite Me
The Lion - Spanish Calypso
Lord Kitchener - If You're Not White You're Black
Lord Kitchener - Sweet Jamaica
There's a few I could mention
Loved Up - the soundtrack from the BBC drama starring Ian Hart is one I play a lot. Also a big fan of the Late Night Tales series particularly the Midlake one and the ones by Lindstrom and Fatboy Slim.
But my favourite has to be the Return Of The Grevious Angel, a tribute to Gram Parsons. Can't say I'm a fan of his originals, but this compilation really works for me.
Maybe it's the time of the
Maybe it's the time of the year but any album which sends this out into the world has to a contender.
Ladies and gentlemen I give you Phil Spector's A Christmas Gift For You
1981 Ze Records Mutant Disco
take me back what a year, what a compilation!
Mutant Disco was a cracker, wasn't it?
I have fond memories of some of the Island comps from the early 70s, such as 'El Pea,' 'Nice Enough To Eat' and 'You Can All Join In.'
My dad had a triple album compilation on CBS Records which I would "borrow" when I was a kid. Can't remember the name (blue & white cover, I think. Maybe some clouds?).
Then there's Trojan's 'Tighten Up' series, especially volume 2.
That would be
The Music People...I won't bore anybody with yet another description of the impact it had on me as a child (and you can probably find my earlier wafflings on that subject if you do a search)
Thanks, Locust!
Blimey, that takes me back. Now I'm going to be looking over my shoulder in case my dad catches me using his hi-fi. Again.
Favourite Comp? Nuggets
Nuggets. Every track a killer.
The Electric Prunes: "I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)"
The Standells: "Dirty Water"
The Strangeloves: "Night Time"
The Knickerbockers: "Lies"
The Vagrants: "Respect"
Mouse: "A Public Execution"
The Blues Project: "No Time Like the Right Time"
The Shadows of Knight: "Oh Yeah"
The Seeds: "Pushin' Too Hard"
The Barbarians: "Moulty"
The Remains: "Don't Look Back"
The Magicians: "An Invitation to Cry"
The Castaways: "Liar, Liar"
13th Floor Elevators: "You're Gonna Miss Me"
Count Five: "Psychotic Reaction"
The Leaves: "Hey Joe"
Michael and the Messengers: "Romeo & Juliet"
The Cryan' Shames: "Sugar and Spice"
The Amboy Dukes: "Baby Please Don't Go"
Blues Magoos: "Tobacco Road"
The Chocolate Watch Band: "Let's Talk About Girls"
The Mojo Men: "Sit Down, I Think I Love You"
The Third Rail: "Run, Run, Run"
Sagittarius: "My World Fell Down"
Nazz: "Open My Eyes"
The Premiers: "Farmer John"
The Magic Mushrooms: "It's-a-Happening"
The later 4-cd box set version kept up the quality, too.
Yes, was going for Nuggets too...
I soon realised though that it's not worth tracking downs albums by 90% of the bands featured regardless of how good their song is" Except for say, 13th Floor Elevators, Standells and The Music Machine - the term one-hit wonder (or one-song wonder) definitely applies to most!
Favourite compilation
Unclassics by Morgan Geist, a mix of obscure and hard-to-find disco. Sublime from beginning to end. Sample tune (God, I love this...)
Late Night Tales
is excellent in particular the Fat Boy Slim and at the Movies cd's. Since I cant have Deutsche Elektronik Musiche though I am going for Dark was the Night - came out couple of years ago and feauturss an amazing array of mainly American artists rangiong from Beirut to Sharon Jones and all places in between.
Favourite / Most Listened To
(same thing really)
On Target: 20 Direct Hits From the Mod Revival
01 The Jam - When You're Young
02 Chords - Maybe Tomorrow
03 Secret Affair - Time For Action
04 Purple Hearts - Millions Like Us
05 Merton Parkas - You Need Wheels
06 Squire - Walking Down The Kings Road
07 Back To Zero - Your Side Of Heaven
08 Teenbeats - Strength Of The Nation
09 Lambrettas - Go Steady
10 Times - Biff Bang Pow
11 Jolt - See Saw
12 Long Tall Shorty - By Your Love
13 Secret Affair - My World
14 Chords - British Way Of Life
15 The Nips - Gabrielle
16 Small World - Love Is Dead
17 Purple Hearts - Jimmy
18 Killermeters - SX 225
19 Teenage Filmstars - I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape
20 Circles - Angry Voices
My Mum had this on a cassette tape in 1972
It was brilliant.
Blimey O'Riley
I've never seen that compilation before, but from the design clearly a twin of The New Age Of Atlantic, which I still have. From the artists listed possibly a stronger line up than TNAOA.
Late 60s comps changed my life!
There were quite a few budget compilations in the late 60s which I reckon changed people's perceptions of what music was about. The triple-whammy for me were these- which gave my ears their first experience of these musicians.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Can_All_Join_In
You Can All Join In - introduced me to Free, Traffic, John Martyn
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nice_Enough_to_Eat
Nice Enough To Eat - Blodwyn Pig, Nick Drake, King Crimson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutbucket_(album)
Gutbucket - Beefheart, Bonzos, Groundhogs
There were others at the time- Bumpers, This is Soul/Blues, The Rock Machine, Fill Your Head With Rock, Picnic, The World of series, which were hugely influential too, but the three above opened many doors.
Beat me to it...
I was going to mention these. Changed my life too. But now (this is wandering a bit off-topic) consider this: Nice Enough to Eat was 15 shillings and sixpence when it came out. I remember marveling at how cheap that was, what a bargain it represented. But, according to measuringworth.com, that is equivalent to £9.94 in today's money.
No wonder we treasured LPs, they were bloody expensive!
Ithink it's a shame
that those Island, Columbia and Harvest 60's and 70's comps are not available on Cd, remastered with lovely cardboard replica sleeves.
Creation Soup
There are five of these beauties, all with almost the same cover (Vols 1- 5), and they just round up all of the early Creation singles plus their b-sides.
You never see them anywhere, I snapped them up in the early 90s when they came out and have not seen them since.
And although it was stipulated that we should only select one, can I put a cheeky second one in, for the lovely Volume compilations, also from the early 90s - the ones that came with a thick CD-sized booklet/magazine.
Dance Decade
A brilliant box set of disco hits from 1973-1983 from Street Sounds (great label) with virtually no filler:
http://www.discogs.com/Various-The-Dance-Decade-1973-1983/release/664967
'Open Strings'
Couldn't agree more about Honest Jons - they have some extraordinary 'various artists' stuff.
One of my favourites is 'Open Strings': 2CDs - one containing ancient Middle-Eastern string recordings, the other modern 'responses' from artists like Rick Tomlinson (Voice of the Seven Woods bloke) and Charlie Parr.
'The Sound of the City - New Orleans'...
one of Charlie Gillett's excellent series that came out some years back.
Charlie Gillett
Another Saturday night, during the punk era, this compilation always got people up dancing at our house parties in Toronto
how we miss people like Sir Charlie, fantastic stuff!
Another Saturday Night...
.... is a fantastic compilation
Rebel Music
In 1979 I bought the Trojan records double LP set "Rebel Music - An Anthology of Reggae Music", compiled by Dave Hendley. It ignited in me a thirst for classic 1960s and 70s Jamaican music that is still unquenched today.
Up !
Up ! Up ! Up ! (** adds single Up ***)
Happy Daze
1."Loaded" - Primal Scream
2."Real, Real, Real" - Jesus Jones
3."Come Home" - James
4."Big" - New FADs
5."Hippy Chick" - Soho
6."Velouria" - The Pixies
7."Taste" - Ride
8."She Comes in the Fall" - Inspiral Carpets
9."Groovy Train" - The Farm
10."The Only One I Know" - The Charlatans
11."Circle Square" - The Wonder Stuff
12."Sheriff Fatman" - Carter USM
13."ProGen" - The Shamen
14."Wrote For Luck" - Happy Mondays
15."I'm Free" - Soup Dragons
20 of Another Kind
This was one of the first, and still the best, Punk/New Wave compilations and I still have my vinyl, with my name written in biro on the cover...released in 1979 or 1980 I think.
Plastic Bertrand - Ca Plane Pour Moi
The Jam - In The City
The Skids - Sweet Suburbia
Otway And Barratt - Beware Of The Flowers
Sham 69 - Borstal Breakout
The Cure - Killing An Arab
Stiff Little Fingers - Suspect Device
The Adverts - Gary Gilmore's Eyes
Generation X - Ready Steady Go
999 - Homicide
The Stranglers - No More Heroes
The Boys - The First Time
Patrik Fitzgerald - Irrelevant Battles
Sham 69 - If The Kids Are United
The Jolt - No Excuses
Otway And Barratt - Really Free
The Heartbreakers - Born Too Lose
999 - Emergency
The Lurkers - I'm On Heat
The Jam - 'A' Bomb In Wardour Street.
Easy
Pillows and Prayers the Cherry Red Records collection from circa 1982 has been played constantly over the last nearly 30 years (wtf!!)
Great tracks from Ben Watt, Tracy Thorn, The Marine Girls, Monochrome Set, Eyeless in Gaza, Joe Crow and even an appearance from Quentin Crisp. When it was released it retailed at 'no more than 99p' but is now available on cd with Pillows and Prayers Volume 2.
Seek it out it is a joy.
Seconded...
I was listening to Joe Crow only this afternoon - twice actually as I was trying to work out what sort of drum machine they/he were using.
Thirded
Ben Watt - Some things Don't Matter
One of my favourite songs of all time
Bob Stanley ...
... of St Etienne has put out a number of excellent compilations
My two favourites are:
Songs For Marios Cafe
http://www.last.fm/music/Various+Artists/Saint+Etienne+Presents+Songs+for+Mario's+Cafe
Songs For The Dog and Duck
http://www.discogs.com/Various-Saint-Etienne-present-Songs-For-The-Dog-D...
Both ace
The Dog and Duck has a track written and sung by Bill Oddie which could almost pass for a soul record. It's not bad. I kid you not.
Bill Oddie did vocal duties on
Rick Wakeman's Criminal Record.
Always loved this one
Great songs..
An Invitation To Windham Hill
No really. Come back... It's really great!
A late entry .....
100 Club Anniversary Singles
http://www.amazon.co.uk/100-Club-Anniversary-Singles-1979-2009/dp/B002GH...
A brilliant soul compilation from the best soul club of them all
Son of Gutbucket
Not particularly well-known but well loved, by me at least.
It has some real gems including the marvellous T B Blues by McKenna Mendelson Mainline, the frankly freak-tastic Walking down their Outlook by High Tide and the hilarious Sic em Pigs by Canned Heat.
Well worth the effort of clearing the pile of CDs off of the turntable in order to play it.