The Best of the Best

Ben "What's your favorite band"
Alan Partridge "The Beatles"
Ben "Really, I love the Beatles, whats your favorite album"
Alan Partridge "Hmm tricky one, i'd say....... the best of the Beatles"

I've never really been a fan of the best of compilation for a band or artist but I will admit that sometimes they have their uses. The thing I hate the most about the best of compilation is the new tracks, uninspired fillers tagged onto an artist or bands most popular works for pure capitalism reasons. Why would a fan of x, y or z buy an album with content that they already own without some kind of incentive. That incentive for the most part is a mediocre and instantly forgettable effort that they have shat out on demand.

They know this too, but only a few admit it. The best admission of this was in Ozzy Osbourne's liner notes for "the Ozzman cometh", a best of compilation from 1997. The additional tracks on this compilation were actually quite interesting with early demos of Black Sabbath numbers that sounded as if they came from the bowels of hell. The new track "back to earth" however was a stinker, Ozzy's comments for the extra track explain that it was a cast off from the Ozzmosis (an album I had the misfortune to buy) and he didn't understand why it was on here. Brutal honesty that only a drug addled Brummie heavy metal legend could get away with.

But there are exceptions to the rules and some best of collections are essential, I'm going to list the top 5 most worthwhile best of compilations to pick up.

Neil Young - Decade

The decade in question is 1966 to 1976, arguably the best ten years of anyones career ever. this collection includes the hits, misses and unreleased tracks.compiled by the man himself and originally released as a triple album, Decade is the template for all box sets and anthologies to follow. There was a single Cd greatest hits release recently but it does no justice to the mans career.



Guided by Voices - Human Amusements at Hourly Rates

Robert Pollard was the driving force behind American underground champions Guided by Voices who can be reasonably described as pretty prolific during their time. Quality control however, was never on GBV's radar and their back catalogue can be a minefield for the newcomer or casual listener. Human Amusements at Hourly rates cherry picks the power pop, Beatles inspired psychedelic majesty of GBV on one cheap as chips disc. This really is a must own!



Bob Marley - Legend

Originally released in 1984, Legend all but ignored the early releases of the Wailers to concentrate on Bob Marley's later chart friendly output. I'd argue that you can discover the older stuff at your leisure, the immediate accessibility of Legend is what has contributed to almost 3 million copies sold in the UK alone. Legend is the party savor for the music snob, there is a pretty good chance you will find this at most house party's and there is normally little resistance to replacing whatever cheese is on the stereo.



The Doors - The best of the Doors

Everybody goes through a Doors phase(do they still?). Mine was a result of the Oliver Stone film in 1991. I swallowed up everything, every album, Soundtrack and live box set. Then listening to An American Prayer, an album of Jim Morrison's poetry set to music by the Doors, you have what an alcoholic calls a "moment of clarity". God this is shit! Cringeworthy GCSE  poetry aside, the Doors did record some great tunes and they are all collected here in this 1985 set. All you need. Seriously.



Beastie Boys - The Sound of science

This 1999 collection of Beastie Boys tracks features Greatest Hits, B sides and unreleased material. Sequenced together this double album fits perfectly and they even begrudgingly include tracks from the generally disowned Licence to ill Days. Altogether this is proof of the three shouty white blokes contribution to the Hip Hop Genre with great liner notes and artwork.



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