This is really insightful and has me reconsidering my knee-jerk reaction to greatest hits comps as a cash grab or a placeholder. as a young SY obsessive, the Screaming Fields comp helped me navigate their very complex early discography. the Patrick Adams example is perfect. when he passed, I told everyone i knew to listen to the Inner Life LP, which wouldn’t show up under any DSP algo for him, but is an incredible example of his depth and range. i’ve always appreciated the Strut comps that go in on the nitty gritty of producer credits, and the Test Pressing producers playlists are essential!
There's something really interesting about an early or mid-career GH that's locks an image of a band in a moment in time. You mention New Order and The Cure, which are awesome examples of this. REM's Eponymous came to mind, as a chronicle of the band's murmuring, plaintive early period. We now know it as only a sliver of the REM's sound. What makes it interesting is its failure to regenerate over time, unlike playlists, which are disposable or editable or cumulative.
Patrick Adams is a particularly pronounced example as a subject for the topic of Greatest Hits, as so many P+P compilations felt grey-area, yet he often seemed to have a hand in them. You'd see them at a particular record store, but nowhere else, then see another similar one at a different store and nowhere else. Couple that with the multiple versions of each production (plus many songs using the same backing tracks in some for), and it's an untamable discography to synthesize.
This is really insightful and has me reconsidering my knee-jerk reaction to greatest hits comps as a cash grab or a placeholder. as a young SY obsessive, the Screaming Fields comp helped me navigate their very complex early discography. the Patrick Adams example is perfect. when he passed, I told everyone i knew to listen to the Inner Life LP, which wouldn’t show up under any DSP algo for him, but is an incredible example of his depth and range. i’ve always appreciated the Strut comps that go in on the nitty gritty of producer credits, and the Test Pressing producers playlists are essential!
Very interesting - curation is undervalued and I miss that idea of having greatest hits.
There's something really interesting about an early or mid-career GH that's locks an image of a band in a moment in time. You mention New Order and The Cure, which are awesome examples of this. REM's Eponymous came to mind, as a chronicle of the band's murmuring, plaintive early period. We now know it as only a sliver of the REM's sound. What makes it interesting is its failure to regenerate over time, unlike playlists, which are disposable or editable or cumulative.
Patrick Adams is a particularly pronounced example as a subject for the topic of Greatest Hits, as so many P+P compilations felt grey-area, yet he often seemed to have a hand in them. You'd see them at a particular record store, but nowhere else, then see another similar one at a different store and nowhere else. Couple that with the multiple versions of each production (plus many songs using the same backing tracks in some for), and it's an untamable discography to synthesize.