Idolator
Generally speaking, releasing a best-of is a sign of a career that's pretty much finished. Obviously there are major exceptions: Madonna's Immaculate Collection, Pet Shop Boys' Discography, and R.E.M.'s Eponymous come to mind, with the latter being a shining example of a specific sort of best-of, the contract-ender. (Eponymous documented the band's tenure on IRS; they'd go onto bigger and sometimes better things on Warner Bros.) But there are many others where the sunset is plainly in sight and/or earshot. Besides "Ghostbusters," what did Ray Parker Jr. do of note following his '82 Greatest Hits? (Which, I hasten to add, came out the same year as The Other Woman, his most successful solo album—curious, that. Some people, it seems, see the writing on the wall faster than others.) Which brings us, naturally, to the Chemical Brothers.
Five years ago, when Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons issued their first singles collection w/optional bonus disc, it had a sense of occasion: ten years of records, a brand name that seemed a bit dated but still had a loyal following. Now, two middling-if-they're-lucky additional albums down the road (one of which, last year's We Are the Night, was inexplicably treated as a major comeback by the U.K. press), the Chems treat us to more of the same, but less, if you know what I mean. Nine of Brotherhood's 14 songs were among the 13 on Singles 93-03—by which I mean the single-disc versions. (Each title's bonus disc is completely different; the new comp features the ten-part "Electronic Battle Weapon" tracks.) Apparently, there are people who would prefer to hear that lousy Q-Tip collaboration over classics like "Song to the Siren" and "The Private Psychedelic Reel," and those people are going to be made very, very happy by Brotherhood.
Still, competing best-ofs separated by only an album or two continue to fascinate me. What are some of your favorite such redundancies, either as objects of contemplation or actual objects? Answers, as always, in the comments.
Comments
I sometimes refer to myself as "the world's biggest fan of The Who", but even I am embarrassed at how many times the band and their label(s) have attempted to reach into the fans' wallets with yet-another repackaging of the same two-dozen-or-so tracks.
According to Wikipedia (motto: "if it's on Wikipedia, you know it MUST be true!"), the band has issued 23 compilations over the years, including a bunch surrounding the era when they broke up for the first time, in the early '80s [Maura, did I get that punctuation right?].
Another exception to the 'career is over' rule -- Green Day's International Superhits, easy. I remember thinking that was that with them and then American Idiot came out...
Anyway, a recent champion of this kind of nonsense is both Joy Division and New Order. (In the case of JD, there's been Substance, Permanent, at least two more best-ofs...)
How about Cracker's competing collections. Virgin was making a new greatest hits collection, but supposedly didn't let the band have any say in it. So Cracker went and made new versions of their songs, and released it on the same day as Virgin's collection.
I still never know which best-of collection to use to introduce new listeners to The Beatles? Any ideas?
Also, bands like Everclear never needed a best of/greatest hits album (especially if they leave out great jems like "Heartspark Dollarsign" while putting on plodding by-the-numbers songs such as "Volvo Driving Soccer Mom")
Ned,
Yep - New Order's "(Best Of)" was followed by "International" with only one album between them, both chock full of pointless light remixes, neither holding a candle to 1987's Substance...
@2ironic4u: Red Album, Blue Album. That's all you need.
I thought New Order/Joy Division are the kings of this (outside of Neil Diamond, obviously). New Order ended their career with "the Best of New Order", came back with "Get Ready", then put out "International: The Best of New Order" and the "Retro" box set within TWO MONTHS of each other. They followed up three years later with another album and ANOTHER Singles collection ("Singles"). Add that to "The Rest Of New Order" and the "Substance" collection already available.
Don't get me started on the hundreds of Joy Division comps...
@Bong14: beat me to it
@2ironic4u: I would never use a compilation to introduce people to the Beatles. With the Beatles, A Hard Day's Night, Rubber Soul, Revolver and whichever of the post '66 albums you like best. If those don't convince them, nothing will.
The "compilations" section of the Neil Diamond All Music Guide page is frighteningly huge.
@The Illiterate: True, but sometimes when people get bombarded with music it gets a little overwhelming. I usually start with the best tracks of said artist as a gateway drug to get the listener to dig deeper.
Second to the Who, The Rolling Stones, who seemed to issue a new greatest hits set in between every album of new material all through the 80s and 90s (not to mention all the live albums).
Only one studio album - Andromeda Heights - separated Prefab Sprout's The Best Of - A Life Of Surprises (1992) and their 38 Carat Collection (1999). (The band has only recorded one album since, but this is probably due in large part to Paddy McAloon's health problems.)
Sadly, Motorhead crossed the more-compilations-than-albums line a few years back, I think.
No one has mentioned this yet so here's my contribution:
The Cure put out Galore in 1997.
Then in 2000 released Blood flowers, which supposedly was a companion piece disc to the far superior Disintegration and Pornography, although I'd never have known that if Spin and Rolling Stone hadn't been in on parroting the marketing hype.
In 2001 they put out the Greatest Hits album, that included nothing from blood flowers, and was differentiated from Galore only by the "single" that they released with the Greatest Hits album.
I was disgusted...but I bit anyway...had to get the acoustic "bonus disc" since there's nothing like synthesizer riffs re-imagined with glockenspiels.
I don't care what anyone says, I will always love the Chemical Brothers.
(Really though you nailed it...Less of that track with Q-Tip and WAY more Psychedelic Reel and Sunshine Underground type of material, plzkthx)
@Barry White Stripes, Office LW: me too.
there's also the european-only best-of followed by the american-only best-of. like these two, say.
the only reason so buy this best of is the inclusion of all the Electronic Battle Weapon tracks
The Illiterate nailed it. The Rolling Stones are always tossing out compilations. Early ones like Big Hits, Through The Past, Hot Rocks and Rewind were fine and dandy but now it's getting to be a bit much. Yet it's not like people aren't lapping each "best of" up.
The kicker for me is when bands put out a bunch of compilations and although they differ from each other (by a mere handful of tracks), each comp features one previously unreleased bonus track to rope in the die-hard fans and completists.
One last rant...I am a big fan of specific albums and am constantly disappointed when I browse through chain stores' music racks but only see "20th Century Masters" or "The Essential" compilations. There are huge wall-hogging displays of this fodder, featuring every artist under the sun. I know that actual individual releases are still in print but a lot of them can be so hard to find. Sure, you can hunt them down online but I'm a fan of hands-on browsing. It makes me sad. I remember when bands used to squeeze out just one or two "best of" releases and they actually put out a hefty body of work that was worth culling from. Now everyone pads their output by tossing out a compilation every couple years.
Something semi-related, but it bugs the hell out of me: why is it, when I walk into a brick-and-mortar record store, it's ten times easier for me to find an R&B/soul artist's "Greatest Hits" compilations than one of their actual, original albums? I swear for the longest time it was some bizarre quixotic Holy Grail search for me, just to find a copy of the Delfonics' self-titled '70 album without going online.
@natepatrin:
"brick-and-mortar record store"
Such things do not exist. LIAR! FLIMLAMMERY!
@TheMojoPin: I dunno -- I don't think I've been selling all my unwanted promo CDs to a carpet store.
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