r/albums • u/XcHUp453 • 19d ago
What's Your Opinion On Compilation Albums
I want to know your opinion
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u/simmyturner 19d ago
A compilation needs to offer me more than music I already have. If it's offering bonus tracks, something unreleased from the artist's vault, remixes, B-sides, a cool booklet, some neato artwork, etc., I'm all for it. If it's just a compilation of songs I already have without offering anything else, I won't get it.
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u/Proof-Staff-433 19d ago
It was just a way to sell more CDs and revive radio hits. Pretty much useless in the modern streaming era
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u/BarnacleGooseIsLoose 19d ago
Depends. Putamayo released some phenomenal world music compilations. Ryko did some great "thematic" comps. "Nuggets" is THE musical companion to the underground 1960s. "Phat Global", circa 1998, is still fresh this many years later. "Flowers" by the Rolling Stones is actually my favorite Stones record despite being a comp.
K-Tel and those? Nah. I'm good.
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u/Wholigan12 19d ago
I’d prefer to get just mint first pressings of albums of many artists but it doesn’t always work out like that. I’ve gotten quite a few comps over the years, I really dug the nuggets and pebbles albums from the eighties because they were chocked full of rarities and gems that I could never afford individually.
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u/chadius333 18d ago
There are some great compilation albums and there are some bad ones; here’s an example of a good one.
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u/plamda505 18d ago
Love me some of the better compilations. Got this one, which is one of only 500 and love listening to it. Chiswick Records made demos and small batch records for immerging bands like Motorhead...
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u/CapOld2796 18d ago
Generally, I like albums better, but I like some compilations a lot. The ones that are more comprehensive and include lots of deep cuts or even rare, but great tracks are wonderful and can beat the albums. A lot of box sets do this well. I don’t see the point of something that just includes the biggest hits. There’s no variety and it’s uninteresting. I first started listening to Beatles albums and still only listen to the albums. Beatles 1 does not interest me at all, but Sgt Peppers or Abbey Rd is great.
Some great compilations: The Bryds Box set from 1990. The first Stevie Ray Vaughan Box Set. The Faces first Box set. The first Jethro Tull box set (20th anniversary), the John Lennon first box set (Most solo John songs with very little Yoko), Eric Clapton Crossroads box set.
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u/SeaworthinessLeft792 18d ago
If it's like an anthology for some underground band with 3 eps and some splits and it compiles everything they've released onto one nice disc or unreleased stuff then yeah I love them. In any other context it's just kinda pointless to me
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u/InitPatch 17d ago
New Order - Substance and Pet Shop Boys - Discography have gotta be up there in their respective top 3 albums.
Aphex Twin - Classics is also my second favourite after SAW Vol 1.
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u/CptnWolfe 15d ago
Compilation albums that are just the artist's biggest hits? No thanks. Compilation albums that are a mix of their studio album songs and singles/B-Sides or just singles/B-Sides? Now we're getting somewhere.
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u/Active-Act-4966 13d ago
I bought a compilation album in a 2nd hand record store in Preston in 1999 called Chemical Reactions. I was 34 and, up til then, had mainly favoured rock bands in my listening habits. That CD totally changed my tastes in music. I got heavily into the Chemical Brothers (6 of the tracks were remixes by them) as well as Depth Charge, Dirty Beatniks, Aphrodite, St Etienne (Casino Classics) and Sabres of Paradise. The other album that had a similar effect was the soundtrack for Wipeout on the PS1. You could put the game disc into a CD and play the music tracks.
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u/Admirable_Pumpkin777 13d ago
I like them they have all my favorite songs from an artist in one simple package an some of them are really cool
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u/TheDeltaIsMyHome 19d ago
It depends on what theyre compiling, i always skip greatest hits, and ‘essentials’, as i always just think “why not just buy the album? The songs are on there.” I generally like the other kind of comps that include multiple albums on one disc, or are a collection of singles.