| Author | Message | ||
     Paul Swinford Member Username: Prema Post Number: 11 Registered: 11-2005 |
Much of my musical taste is still stuck in the late 1970s and 1980s. It's been a small vindication to see that 20 years later some of the groups I liked are considered either more mainstream or influential. Hence, some of them have seen their music repackaged as Greatest Hits, Best Of or Career Retrospective compilations. How about a discussion on this topic? What bands do you think have been best summed up on a greatest hits or Best Of collection? What bands take the prize for the MOST such releases? Who hasn't deserved a Best Of or Greatest Hits but got one anyway? Any performer or groups you think deserve one but haven't had it yet? What are your favorite Best Of, Greatest Hits or Retrospective releases? Do you think there have been some terribly inadequate Best Of's for some groups? Anyone have any thoughts about Universal's 20th Century Masters series? Some of my favorites and recent acquisitions in this genre would be: Juvenilia The Verlaines (their earlier output) 1984-1995 American Music Club Testament The Blasters Bella Vista Terrace The Go-Betweens Lullabies to Violaine The Cocteau Twins The Sun Years Johnny Cash Greatest Hits The Monkees The Singles The Pretenders Transistor Blast XTC | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 489 Registered: 05-2005 |
Paul, Morrissey/Smiths, The Fall and New Order must be amongst the most overcompiled. Conversely the quality is excellent but how many times can you release the same stuff under a different title? Must be a Manchester thing Sonic Youth to my knowledge have not been given the greatest hits treatment, how good would that be? Ones I would love to see Husker Du Pernice Bros Faves are Wire, Gang of 4, Replacements, Primal Scream, Neil Young | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 373 Registered: 04-2005 |
Some great artists never quite made great albums, so compilations serve them better. The Buzzcocks' "Singles Going Steady" is my #1 example of this, as I rarely ever wanted to play any other albums by that band. The Jam's "Snap!" (not sure if that's a U.S.-only comp) is similar--I found their studio albums spotty. Some others: David Bowie - Changesonebowie Roxy Music - Greatest Hits ('72-75 era only) Stevie Wonder - Original Musiquarium Kevin, I think there was a Sonic Youth compilation, although only in some wonderful alternative universe could it have been called "greatest hits." It's easy to make astoundingly good SY "best of" compilations, as every album has at least two or three stone cold classics, along with a certain amount of noisy dreck. Get rid of the noisy dreck and string together the great tracks, and it's not difficult to convince oneself SY that is the greatest American band ever. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 353 Registered: 10-2004 |
yeah, there are some truly amazing comps out there. my list would look something like this: the smiths - louder than bombs and hatful of hollow love - best of (the rhino comp with the original line-up pictured standing on some rocks on the cover) buzzcocks - singles going steady new order - substance joy division - substance xtc - waxworks the jam - snap! the fall - a sides josef k - young and stupid (original version from the 80s) the cure - standing on a beach (cassette version which contained all the b-sides) i'm sure there are more... in some cases, these collections were how i was introduced to some of these bands. |