I’m well aware that we live in a time where playlists are still the dominant way of discovering music outside of album releases. Even to this day, I see some strange aversion to compilation CDs as if they’re somehow ‘invalid’ or ‘redundant’ when compared to an artist’s studio albums. This is simply not true, a completely misguided view on the medium perpetrated by modern music reviewing practices. Your typical youtube music reviewer tends to overlook the past entirely, and internet-age music critics aren’t going to put any of these records on ‘best of’ lists. These CDs aren’t going to appear in any historical retellings of the past, which has been retuned to largely focus on studio albums and specific songs. In doing so, music discovery becomes far more difficult for us listeners, leaving it to AI algo-shit to do most of the heavy lifting for anything that isn’t already popular.
However, to the fellow music enjoyers who cherish the feeling of discovery, you should know that pre-internet enthusiasts have already done much heavy lifting for you. Many efforts have been made to preserve their important discoveries, and I think it’s important not to look past these. I’ve made this list of compilations where, in many cases, these CDs are just as important as the band’s studio album output, or in some cases, even more important!
Keep in mind I’m going to keep referring to these as CDs, because in every case, these do exist as literal CDs. Often, you can find these for dirt cheap if you’re looking for physical media, though more importantly, the existence of these collections as physical media makes it easy to find them through p2p file sharing. And in an age where media is only temporary until some copyright mongoloid decides that we’re not allowed to experience it anymore, these methods of file sharing and discovery are more important than ever.
BLACK FLAG
Keith Morris era Black Flag has completely gotten lost in the conversation of hardcore punk history, simply because they didn’t put out any ‘albums’ at the time. Which, it’s fine if people want to throw on the ‘Group Sex’ album from Circle Jerks for their Keith Morris fix. But it’s crazy that most people’s knowledge Black Flag prior to Henry Rollins starts and ends with the 5 minute Nervous Breakdown EP! For that matter, Black Flag had TWO other vocalists after Keith before they settled on Rollins.
Admittedly, I’ve never been huge on Rollins’ punk music, so this Four Years LP ends up being a go-to for my American hardcore punk fix. The sound of early Black Flag is ultimately untouchable, and their post-Keith pre-Rollins material isn’t bad either. In any case, this compilation is only 20 minutes long, and I much prefer it to the American edgelord shit from this era of punk. Why modern music listeners are clamoring for ‘Damaged’ and ‘My War’ while overlooking this iconic punk record is beyond me.
COCTEAU TWINS
This might come as a surprise to hear, but while they were active, Cocteau Twins were far more successful in America than they were in their home country of the UK. The British music press mostly glossed over these guys as some kind of gloomy novelty. It wasn’t until the band dropped The Pink Opaque in the US in 1986 that they started to grab attention overseas, going from ‘overlooked 4AD group that nobody in America has heard of’ into ‘American college hipster sensation’ soon after.
It’s because of this compilation that the band managed to get any reasonable amount of attention at all. This is funny when you consider that only one of the ten tracks on this CD have ever appeared on their studio albums! Think about it. The Pink Opaque is one of the best, most important albums in the Cocteau Twins discography, and hardly any current music listeners have god dang heard anything from it!
This is because the Twins have put out HOURS of material as non-album singles and EPs. So much so that the Lullabies to Violaine box set, which contains all of them, totals up to a running time of nearly four hours! That’s four hours of Cocteau Twins goodness that music listeners are missing out on! Unfortunately, the Lullabies to Violaine Volume 2 CD is a bit pricey, so you’re stuck with the Volume 1 CD if you’re looking for cheap completionist factors. Just take out a sharpie and rename it “Lullabies to Iceblink”. Nobody needs post-4AD Twins material anyways, r-right bros??
My point is that The Pink Opaque is a 40 minute album that takes highlights from the first four years of Twins non-album releases (which is a LOT) and condenses it down into something that sane music listeners can enjoy. Believe me, this is just as worthwhile as ‘Treasure’ or ‘Heaven or Las Vegas’, so if you have any interest in the group, you’d be sorely missing out by not listening to this.
JAMES BROWN
Getting a proper rundown on the music of James Brown is a difficult task for a few reasons. One is that nobody cares about this OLD music anymore you god damn BOOMERS. Unless you’re putting out weird King Crimson jazz prog shit, nobody wants to hear it! Secondly, in an age where an artist’s image is so important, James’ reputation of being a violent wacko is something you can’t just handwave by saying “things were different back then!” Modern day music nerds will trash your credibility if they find out you traced art for your album cover. Needless to say, these listeners aren’t looking for an ‘entertainer’.
But even more importantly, where the hell do you even start with this guy’s discography?? If you’re one of those ‘studio album only’ purists, James’ discography is undecipherable. The list of studio albums is seemingly endless, and the list of compilations goes on even further! Because of this, it’s difficult to assess why James is considered a legend outside of a handful of popular songs of his you might have already heard. So, depending on which era of James Brown the writer is interested in, you’ll see all kinds of different recommendations ranging from his shorter pop hits to his psychedelic funk jams. Most of these are completely valid, so consider this my way of throwing my hat into the ring.
Funk Power 1970 is a compilation CD from 1996, and it’s my go-to rundown for the funk era of James’ music. This covers a good handful of those iconic longass James Brown funk jams. Of course it kicks off with everybody’s favorite James Brown five minute funk track ‘Sex Machine’. But after that, we start hitting the nine minute jam of a lifetime ‘Super Bad’, eventually hitting the slick ‘Talkin Loud and Sayin Nothing’... which is fourteen minutes! Putting the track lengths aside of course, it’s these expressive vocal and instrumental performances that really make this tracklist special. And for that matter, this CD is not a random obscurity. You can find it for cheap in used sales, and likewise, find it on P2P easily. If you’re looking to see what funk music can turn into at its peak, this is a good starting point.
OASIS
By the time The Masterplan came out to save Oasis’ ass from the heroin-fueled disaster that was Be Here Now, it was already too late. Their early trajectory flop makes it easier for music nerds to comb through Oasis’ career. They only put out two good albums during the time they were relevant. It’s because of this that The Masterplan often gets overlooked as a ‘who cares’ curiosity of a band that no longer mattered. It’s a collection of non-album singles that album listeners would have otherwise missed. However, these are indeed good tracks from before Oasis went off the deep end, and I’d argue this is just as worthwhile of a listen as their classic records. If you’ve only heard Definitely Maybe and Morning Glory, this CD contains a whole hour of good Oasis tracks you probably haven’t heard yet! I’d definitely skip their six minute long ‘I Am the Walrus’ cover in the middle of the CD, though.
THE SMITHS
The Smiths’ discography is hilarious when you notice that they’ve put out more compilation CDs than actual studio albums! Hell, even RYM doesn’t know what to make of it at certain points. ‘Hatful of Hollow’, arguably the most important (or simply the best) Smiths album, is sitting at the very bottom of the Smiths RYM page, listed as a ‘live sessions’ miscellaneous release. Absolutely embarrassing.
Things start getting confusing if you’re looking for some kind of ‘completionist’ route to collecting the band’s non-album singles. Which one do you need? The CD from 1995 titled ‘Singles’, perhaps? No, that one doesn’t have everything, and nearly all of these songs can be found on their studio albums. Well then what about The Sound of the Smiths, the 2008 double CD from Rhino Records? No, this one is no good either. Nobody is going to want to listen to the Smiths for two and a half hours straight. And furthermore, this tracklist for the first CD looks awfully similar to the 1995 Singles CD.
What makes this funnier, is that in 1987 the band put out two compilations at around the same time. One of them is called ‘The World Won’t Listen’ (lol) and the second is called ‘Louder Than Bombs’. The difference between the two is that ‘The World Won’t Listen’ was geared as a middle finger towards the UK. Their spite towards British radio is evident by having ‘Panic’ as the first track on the song list (i.e. the song where the chorus is “Hang the DJ! Hang the DJ!”) ‘Louder Than Bombs’, on the other hand, was geared towards American music listeners, and this track list has aged far better than any of these other compilations.
For starters, the ‘Louder Than Bombs’ CD assumes that you’re already familiar with the band’s American output, which includes all their studio albums aside from ‘Hatful of Hollow’. Or in other words, if your only familiarity with the band comes from their 4 studio albums as listed in most music databases, you still have a lot left to sift through! Case in point, the first time you spin ‘Louder Than Bombs’, you’re going to hit seven songs in a row that haven’t even appeared on ‘Hollow’, right from track 1. And believe me, unless you’re completely adverse to any music from the 80s, these are songs worth hearing.
Or in other words, forget all these other compilations! Unless you count ‘Hatful of Hollow’ as a compilation CD (I don’t), then ‘Louder Than Bombs’ is the only compilation of theirs you need to hear. It’s just as worthwhile of a CD as their studio albums, and I promise you haven’t heard half the songs on this collection unless you already spent time digging through their singles before.
SQUEEZE
You didn’t have many options to find out about Squeeze if you were an American. Although plenty of their songs charted well in the UK, only a few songs of theirs ever charted in the US at all (‘Tempted’ managed to make a name for itself on US rock radio stations). In either case, their albums aren’t what people were interested in. By now, all traces of this band in the US have evaporated, and it’s thanks to this Singles album of theirs that you can properly appreciate how good these guys were at writing catchy songs.
Squeeze is a tried and true ‘singles band’ if there ever was one. Hot on the new wave craze, they were cranking out tracks left and right. Within only four years after their first release, Squeeze had close to 20 different A-sides to choose from for an LP of hits. And, in 2024, hearing this band through a 40 minute tracklist of their best songs is the ideal way to experience what the band represented. Those with any appreciation for new wave pop songs need to hear this one!
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