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My name is.....and I am a compliationaholic.

I think a compilation of different artists for exercising or driving, homemade with love, care and attention, is a wonderful thing. And so is a good radio station, if there is such a thing any more.

But I am starting to wonder: although it seems I am one of the first to get sucked into buying a newly repackaged, remastered, reprinted liner notes blah blah blah archive of music, it is finally beginning to dawn on me that I NEVER listen to ANY of them.

And given that these collections are hardly cheap, I have probably wasted more money on them than any subset of my CD collection.

The remastered Steely Dan catalogue? I never listen to it. Every Stevie Wonder track ever recorded? I must own at least three collections and I never want to listen to any of them. All of the Bowie singles on 2 CDs? Bores me. Led Zepplin remasters? Same. And these are all artists whose music I love?!?!

However, I will happily listen to Aja, Led Zeppelin II, ChangesoneBowie or Songs in the Key of Life, Electric Ladyland over and over and over again.

Is it just me or is there something nostalgic, something more authentic, and something JUST RIGHT about the original albums, the original order of the tracks, the original way things were intended to be listened to?

Record company compilations of different artists are even worse. I get similarly excited buying a basket of jazz or blues tunes on the Verve label for example. But invariably, once I get past the slick repackaging, the high profile artists on the first or second track, I am deeply disappointed in the content and the rythmn and cadence of the content.

Obviously I am not so cynical to think that this might be a particularly high margin exercise to recycle old material by the record labels, but I just wondered if anyone else ever thought about this.
cwlondon
7 responses Add your response
ohlala
1,235 posts
 
Compilations make for good probes, but compared to albums, they are disjointed, making them tough and relatively meanlingless to sit through. Soundtracks do a little better just because the tracks are at least tied together by the film. I don't know what there is to ponder, really, and I find slick packaging annoying.
tweekerman
473 posts
 
Stop wondering, because you are correct. The orginal albums do have a layout that "works", as well its the way we remember it. Much more important is THE FACT (refer to my post on the "are remasters worth buying?" thread, below) ...THE FACT that remasters are just that, re-recorded, the intergration is gone, gone with the wind. Don't sound the same to me, sound kinda funny. I've heard Chicago Hits remastered, I'm not moved at all by this new fandago "re-master". Like you ,bored. If you like Stevie Wonder, by all means get his Innervisions disc, if its still in print. Great music. Steely Dan, absolutely must sound exactly like I remember the vinyl albums, if its not, I don't want to hear it. I hear some remasters on the radio, and I shut it off, sounds goofy. Its all about the money, these "re-masters". All right here comes the pro-re-master group, have your say.
garfish
1,840 posts
 
Hi Cw; over the years I've certainly bought my share of "compilations"-- some good, and some not so. But when CD Recorders became readily available in the last few years, I started making my own compilations of individual artists/groups, but also of varied artists within a particular genre of music.

For example, I've done a 4 CD set I call "Blues & Soul, Nice and Slow". This set was made by selecting favorite songs from about 250-300 blues/soul CDs. I consider this a dynamite set and listen to it all the time. It took me over a month to select, volume match, and record the various tracks-- over 5 hours of excellent music.

After that success, a 4 CD set of "Blues & Rock, Nice & Hot", and 3 CD sets of "Country Angels", and of "Female Jazz Ballads". I did a "Best of Melissa Etheridge" that worked out especially well as her first 5 CDs are on the same label and sound like they were done in the same studio, and volume matching was easy. I've done many others too, but my point is that the CD Recorder has fundamentally changed the way I listen to music. Gotta' have the time to do it though-- and I do.

I'd also say that I don't buy fewer CDs either, in fact probably more-- then select those songs I like best and put them on my own CD-Rs in combinations I like, eg I've bought all of Allison Krause's CDs, and that's probably my next CD-R project. I've owned 4-5 different CD Recorders, and have finally settled on a Marantz CDR500 PRO. Just a different perspective on "compilations". Cheers. Craig
lugnut
1,190 posts
 
I agree with you. Having read a number of books about idividual artists, my belief about the playlist order was confirmed. They spend considerable time and effort doing this and often agonize when faced with cutting a tune. I couldn't imagine listening to Abbey Road in random order. Some remixes bother me too even when the order is retained. I think it's a lot like looking at your own face in a mirror vs. a photo. We're used to seeing our image reversed and it's uncomfortable (for me) when I see myself as others see me. The mind makes distinctions we usually aren't aware of. Garfish makes a good point though. I'll pack as many cuts onto a cd as space allows and listen to those on long drives.
rosstaman
455 posts
 
I also prefer to make my own compilations. I have a acoustic blues, electric blues, women of modern rock, women of jazz, the best of the late 60's -70's, my favorite audiophile recordings, my favorite Mozart pieces, etc. I have an Alesis Masterlink 9600 and it produces excellent red book cd's. I mainly use them for my car, but also enjoy them on my system.
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
CW,
It seems that you simply need to explore deeper music and dig out something new. There is lots of music I'm sure that you did not explore that already existed a long time ago upto now. It continues to bring new artists new labels and new releases and not only 21st century hop and hip but the real serious rock, progressive rock, punk, jazz, underground... i.e. simply saying the stuff that you might like...

I got bored from Zeppelin, Hendrix a long time ago. Recently I got bored even from King Crimson as well despite this band being dominating over my average album listenings.
Genesis, Yes and ELP are standing firm on my shelves probably collecting some dust and I never looked on them for quite a while. Soon probably I'll sell them but later probably will miss!

It seems to me that I will never get bored from CAN and their members but who knows?

I always appreciate albums more than compilations unless the last contain unreleased tracks or versions.

Have you ever tried to listen to Zappa compilations...? Oh, no this guy albums albums and albums only! Still didn't get bored of him for already more than 16 years of enjoying(i'm not too old)

Step further on your explorations and you'll understand that music is simply endless even without compilationsssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!
davebachmann
94 posts
 
Compilations are a great way to check out an artist or a theme, but perhaps best done by checking it out from your local library. It gives you a quick way of checking out an unknown artist's body of work or as an introduction to a new style of music.
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