Greatest Hits?
I’ve been buying a lot of music lately. The iTunes Music Store makes it so easy, plus I love music and I have the money to spend. But in order to find the music to buy, I often read reviews of music. This helps to steer me towards artists I would otherwise have not heard of.
Recently (last week) I bought an album by The Fratellis – Costello Music. It’s pretty good. You may know one of their songs, Flathead, which you may know, as it was featured it an iPod commercial. Ba du ba ba da daa daa daa daa, et cetera. Now, I like the song okay, but I much prefer some of the other songs on the album. And overall, it’s one of those albums where no song stands out as truly amazing. They only work because it’s a fun collection of tracks.
But a review I read (in the Onion’s AV Club no less) suggested putting that song on a mixtape and losing the rest of the album. I was shocked! Just because it’s the most well-known song of the album doesn’t mean it’s anywhere close to the top of the best song. I’m shocked the AV Club would sink to such commercialism. Plus, aren’t we all a little sick of hearing the song on television anyway? Would you really want to risk becoming sick of a song you put on a mixtape before the other songs grew equally tired?
It’s just like all those “Greatest Hits” collections. For some artists, they work great. I would never want to purchase an album by Styx; for me, their greatest hits is MORE than enough. But for artists like Queen, who produced some amazing albums, I sometimes feel limited and regretful that I bought their greatest hits (of course, I was about 9 when I got that album). I just don’t think you can sum up an entire band who produced great albums by putting together those tracks that were released for radio play. Of course the singles will become the greatest hits. The other songs don’t have a chance. But that does not mean they are even close to the best songs the band produced.
Anyway, music is awesome.
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May 4th, 2007 11:32
What are some of the other artists you’ve been trying out lately? I’ve been enjoying some European stuff lately, that’s pretty different from the music I normally listen to. And I’ve listened to M.I.A.’s new singles. I can’t wait for her new album! Also, I’ve recently become obsessed with Lily Allen’s album.
You’re right, music is awesome.