Compilation | Stegzy's Music Project

Definitive Simon & Garfunkel – Simon & Garfunkel [#356]

by stegzy

Regardless of what my wife thinks of Paul Simon and the hirsute Art Garfunkel, I’ve never really gotten on well with the pair. I was forced up with Mrs Robinson as part of my life soundtrack in the 1970s, and, since establishing firm musical boundaries between myself and my parents, I have distanced myself from the artists known as Simon & Garfunkel. Sneering contemptuously whenever their musical prowess or influence is mentioned.

So why, you may ask, is this album in your collection? Well it’s there purely because, as highlighted on numerous occasions during this project, my collection is an amalgamation of my own musical tastes, music forced upon me by peers and music harvested from various relationships over the years.

What makes this the Definitive then? Well to me Definitive means exactly what it says, this album should therefore define the artists, Simon and Garfunkel. Like if you were to look up the band in a musical dictionary this is what you would hear.

So don your cheesecloth, your kaftan and your gingham. Get yourself into a car from the 1960s. Grow your hair like a hippy, wear flowers, tattoo yourself with Dharma initiative symbols and run off to join some San Fransisco based Manson-esque cult with this album on your in car 8-track.

best of compilations Simon & Garfunkel

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Decade – Duran Duran [#352]

by stegzy

The problem with being a successful band is that no sooner have you released a “Best of” compilation, you run the risk of releasing other hit records that fans feel cheated out of until your next “Best of” compilation.

Decade is Duran Duran’s “Best of” compilation from the CD rush of the early nineties and features all their fabulous songs: Girls on Film, Rio, View to a Kill etc. I managed to get this album from a bargain “5 for £30” offer at the Virgin Megastore in Liverpool, which, when you think of the price of music today, was a bit of a bargain. You don’t tend to see iTunes selling selections of albums in “x for £x” offers. Nor do you see Amazon doing the same with their physical and digital sections.

Still, who pays for music these days?

1989 best of compilations Duran Duran

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Death to the Pixies – The Pixies [#351]

by stegzy

Sometime in the 1990s I must have been living under a rock or something. It seems that, to everyone else, the greatest band that ever performed were around and releasing records. Of course, living under a rock meant that I was unaware of this. Probably in the same way as I was unaware of many other musical things. See, that’s what it was like in the pre-internet nineties; if you wanted to find out about the latest music you either had to know someone who worked at Our Price or read NME.

I didn’t know anyone that worked at Our Price. I knew someone that had a music shop, but they sold instruments and rented videos on the side. I also didn’t read NME. Paul Sanderson read NME. Mike Reagan read NME. Most other people I knew thought NME was something to do with miners or something.

Then the late nineties came and I was more musically astute. There I am listening to Uncut magazines 4AD compilation upon which is a track called Debaser. Only to me they’re singing about a steam basin. Lyrics have never been my strong point. My then pre-first-wife says to me that this song is by the Pixies and that I should like them.

At some other point in that time, there I am in work, whistling absent mindedly along to Debaser while doing a stock take in the stationery cupboard. Along comes my chum Nick. “I didn’t know you liked the Pixies” he says to me from under his beret and soul patched face. “I don’t” I replied. “Well you should like them“.

It seemed that if I wanted to be accepted in the world, I had to relinquish my grasp of seventies prog and, at that stage, eighties goth and embrace the modern musical age welcomingly by liking The Pixies. So I went to the Virgin Megastore (HMV was and is shit for music like this) and picked myself a copy of the Pixies’ greatest hits.

And this is said album. I know I should like them. But I don’t. I like two songs on their greatest hits, Debaser and Monkey Gone to Heaven. I should like more of their work. I don’t. I am a failure when it comes to being a hipster it seems.

4AD best of compilations Pixies (The)

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Dead Can Dance (1981 – 1998) – Dead Can Dance [#348]

by stegzy

A four volume compilation of various works by the band Dead Can Dance.

Being a bit of a DCD nerd, I couldn’t turn my nose up at this. Sure I have most of the tracks already on other albums but there are some tracks on here that aren’t available on conventional releases.

Radio recordings and rare songs appear here along with the foetal essence of some well known DCD songs. It also came with a DVD of the live Toward the Within concert which will appear here on the music project in a few years time.

Dead Can Dance Lisa Gerrard

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De Afrekening Vols 4 & 5 – Various Artists [#346]

by stegzy

During the height of the download free for all, I was taken by the idea that my musical tastes were fairly limited. I was also struck by the idea that the majority of introductions to new music used to come from cassette compilations made by friends or those cassette compilations found discarded on the road, possibly by car thieves.

So I took the initiative to download compilations created professionally or by fans. De Afrekening is one such professionally produced compilation founded from a Belgian radio and record chart broadcasting program featured on Studio Brussel. There were many De Afrekening compilations available at the time and I recall downloading many. However, it now appears that I only have the two remaining ones.

Volume 4 contains the following:

Liberty Song – Levellers
Nearly Lost You – Screaming Trees
Rockin’ the Res – John Trudell
Rosie – Claw Boys Claw
In Liverpool – Suzanne Vega
Changes – Sugar
Stockholm – New Fast Automatic Daffodils
Suspicious Minds – Dwight Yoakam
A Letter to Elise – The Cure
Cold by the Sea – Betty Goes Green
Sting Me – The Black Crowes
This Is Not a Song – The Frank & Walters
Dit is mijn huis – De Mens
Goodbye – The Sundays
Soap Bubble Box – Nits
I Had a Dream, Joe – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Generations – Inspiral Carpets
Als de rook om je hoofd is verdwenen – Tröckener Kecks

No songs that really grab me on this selection, lots of indie Madchester rubbish and it’s nice to see Susanne Vega there but I’m not all that enamoured with this compilation.

For Volume 5:

Two Princes – Spin Doctors
You Suck – Consolidated
Creep – Radiohead
Would? – Alice in Chains
Courage – The Tragically Hip
Feed the Tree – Belly
Cats in the Cradle – Ugly Kid Joe
Killing in the Name – Rage Against the Machine
If I Can’t Change Your Mind – Sugar
Why Should We Wait? – Soapstone Mountain
I Feel You – Depeche Mode
Sugar Kane – Sonic Youth
The Ballad of Lea and Paul – K’s Choice
Your Town – Deacon Blue
Somebody to Shove – Soul Asylum
Can’t Call Me Yours – The Scabs
Little Baby Nothing – Manic Street Preachers
Underwhelmed – Sloan

This volume contains a few good tracks, notably including Belly and Depeche Mode. Some other classics including Ugly Kid Joe, which always reminds me of 1993 and Spin Doctors, who feature later in the music project, also feature on the compilation.

While the idea of discovering new music through compilations was good, using the De Afrekening compilations as a method to achieve this was probably not a good idea.

Belly compilations Depeche Mode Various Artists

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Cosmos – Vangelis [#312]

by stegzy

Look hard and long at Vangelis’ catalogue and you’ll struggle to find this album. Probably because it is an unofficial compilation.

If you were about in the 1980s you’ll probably recall a ground breaking documentary series called Cosmos presented by Carl Sagan. You’ll also probably remember the futuristic music that accompanied the series, most of which was extracted from albums by Vangelis. Indeed, if you are British, you might remember Johnny Ball’s informative television programmes covering numbers, science and the like. You know, from the time when television programmes weren’t vacuous? Well there are a few tracks on this album that will bring memories of those times rushing back.

This album is a collection of Vangelis’ most overused tunes from various science programmes throughout the eighties nicely tied under the title, Cosmos.

Great stuff.

2012 Vangelis

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Contraband: The Best of – Men at Work [#308]

by stegzy

If you ever thought Men at Work were one hit wonders with Down Under, you’ll be very much mistaken. Men at Work were Australia’s answer to the likes of Huey Lewis & the News and such.

Contraband is a “best of” compilation for the antipodean musicians and provides the listener with a broad spectra of their work. If you’ve only ever heard Down Under then I suggest you get this on the old iTunes player and remind yourself that they have actually done a lot more than songs about travelling the world in a worn out combi.

I really like this best of. It’s a good example of how best ofs should work. You’ve heard of one of the artist’s songs but you’re not sure if you’ll like the rest of their work. So buy a best of, discover you like a few of their songs but not enough to warrant buying their entire catalogue.

I should listen to my own advice.

best of compilations Men at Work

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Concerto – Roxy Music [#300]

by stegzy

I had hoped that the three hundredth album in this project would have been a monumental one. Sadly it’s another best of/Live/compilation. It’s like all the albums this month have been compilations. I know they haven’t but it really seems like to be a successful musician you have to write about 20 songs on about 3 albums then release best ofs, lives and cover version albums for a few years then make a come back or reform.

Bryan Ferry is the master of come back. Concerto is the twenty somethingth release by Roxy Music and the sixth live album by the band. It is also noted for the fact that it was released in 2001 and is a recording of a concert in performed in Denver made in 1979.

Talk about milking your back catalogue and fans for everything they have!

Brian Eno Bryan Ferry Live Roxy Music

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Complete Mike Oldfield – Mike Oldfield [#298]

by stegzy

More compilations. I’d like to say that you can tell the popularity of an artist by the number of compilation and “best ofs” they have. Sadly a great deal of musicians use “Best ofs”, Live concerts (as we will see soon with Bryan Ferry and others) and compilations (Box, Collection, Complete and otherwise) to fill the gaps in their “busy” schedules between drug taking, lying about in hotels with three or more women and playing golf, usually to keep the fans interested or aware that they’re still out there….recording…being inspired….living the rock star life. You’d never see Geoff Love releasing a best of.

Today on Stegzy’s Music Project it’s Mike Oldfield and his 1985 compilation showcasing the wide range of musical talent he has. Featuring his memorable pop songs (Moonlight Shadow, Shadow on the Wall, etc), excerpts from his studio works (Tubular Bells, Hergest Ridge, etc) and his film and television work (Blue Peter, Killing Fields).

This album was the first album I ever had on CD and I must have listened to it a thousand times over the years considering its age. I bought it from Boots in Liverpool in 1986 using gift vouchers received at Christmas to play on my shiny new CD player (also a Christmas gift bought from Boots). On the same visit I bought the Best of Donna Summer and probably a couple of computer games for my Commodore 64 from Bits and Bytes in Central Station. Bits and Bytes no longer trade, the Donna Summer CD cracked, flaked and went the way of the old dust bin along with the CD player and the stereo it was attached to. Boots no longer sell CDs or Hi-Fis but Mike Oldfield’s Complete Mike Oldfield triple CD compilation still exists and it sits. In a box. In the attic.

1985 compilations Mike Oldfield Progressive Rock

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Complete Madness – Madness [#297]

by stegzy

If you were about in the 1980s you’re more than likely familiar with Madness. If you weren’t then you might be aware of Madness.

This album is a compilation of the best of Suggs and his chums and their unique ska sound from the very beginning of their career. Music like this acts as a kind of temporal benchmark were you can usually relate one or two of their songs to some sort of event or activity in your life.

For me the songs Baggy Trousers and Cardiac Arrest have me at eight years old, listening to a cassette mix tape my dad made me for my old mono cassette player. House of Fun was rereleased in the 90s around about the time I was rejecting “popular” music so there’s nothing particular attached to that song.

It should be noted though, that this compilation is from 1982 so later songs such as Our House and Driving in my Car are absent. Therefore, if it is a complete compilation of Madness hits you’re looking for, you’ll want the later Ultimate Madness

best of compilations Madness

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The Collection – Ultravox [#288]

by stegzy

Midge Ure et al, dance with tears in their eyes to all their greatest hits and there are quite a few. This “Best of” compilation is in my top ten of “Favourite best of compilations” especially as it has lots of songs I’m familiar with as well as a few that, until I heard it, were unfamiliar with.

Ultravox synthed their way through the music scene of the 1980s with epic songs people still remember today. Songs such as the evocative Vienna, the eye pricking Dancing with Tears in My Eyes and the rousing Love’s Great Adventure feature heavily on the 1980s soundscape and they also feature on this compilation.

If you want to recapture the 1980s with a single band and Duran Duran are not available, then Ultravox will happily fill that gap for you.

best of compilations Ultravox

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Club for Heroes – Various Artists [#283]

by stegzy

Club for Heroes – Various Artists

Back in the early nineties, CD’s started to rise to prominence and with them came an increase in compilations. This is possibly the first compilation I bought rather than made myself using recordings from vinyl or cassette.

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1992 compilations Duran Duran Spandau Ballet Ultravox Various Artists

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Chestnut Mare – The Byrds (#262)

by stegzy

Chestnut Mare – The Byrds (#260)

I used to like The Byrds. Well, I liked a couple of their songs at least. That was until I discovered that they went a bit Goddy towards the end of the 1960s. After that, it was all bollocks really.

Chestnut Mare appears to be an unofficial fan compilation of some of the more popular Byrds songs. I have no idea how it came to be in my collection other than it possibly came from Jamie. Still, there are a number of hits on it, even though, it appears, the Byrds were just a glorified covers band.

best of Byrds (The) compilations

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Capital Gold: Legends (Volume 1) – Various Artists [#244]

by stegzy

Capital Gold: Legends (Volume 1) – Various Artists

Seems like there was a time when all that was available was compilations. Compilations compiled by this person, compilations compiled by that person. In this case, the compilation has been compiled by Capital Gold radio. These are legendary songs.

Although I wouldn’t really call any of them “legendary”. They’re pretty much run of the mill and there are many more superior tracks available from the artists that appear on the track listing. Still, it’s ok if you’re having a light soiree at home or entertaining people in their 60s.

Another one for the recycling bin. Available in stig bins everywhere.

Various Artists

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Call on the Dark – Various Artists (#238)

by stegzy

Call on the Dark – Various Artists

I think it’s probably best that I warn you in advance. When I get to “G” there will be a whole load of compilation albums similar to this resulting from my search into gothic music. If you read regularly you’ll already know of that search.

Call on the Dark is a compilation album. No idea where I got it from but it’s more than likely I downloaded it because it has a track by Fields of the Nephilim. Anyway, the compilation consists of the following:

Annwyn, Beneath the Waves – Faith and the Muse
Flash in My Veins – Silke Bischoff
Dawnland – Love Like Blood
Demon – London After Midnight
Kick It – Nitzer Ebb
Bin Ich Es Denn – Das Ich
Dawnrazor – Fields of the Nephilim
Dreamland – Girls Under Glass
Chains – Dreadful Shadows
If Only – Born for Bliss
Disorder – Shock Therapy
Godsent – Dreamside
Kleine Schwester – Umbra et Imago
Precious Limetree – Darc Entries
To a Loyal Friend – Sopor Aeternus & The Ensemble of Shadows

Nephilim aside, there’s nothing much to like about this compilation. I suppose I keep these kind of things just incase I find something I like but 8 years on, I still haven’t.

1997 Faith and the Muse Fields of the Nephilim Various Artists

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Buddha Bar III by Ravin – Various Artists (#230)

by stegzy

Buddha Bar III by Ravin

Music to eat kebabs to.

Imagine being all postmillennial and second wave world music was doing the rounds. Imagine a time where you are embracing different cultures in a pre-911 world; searching out the next new sound from our global library.

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Various Artists

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British Music Hall Memories – Various Artists (#224)

by stegzy

British Music Hall Memories – Various Artists

People say that pop stars today have no regard for decency or the effect they’ll have on the youth. Similarly, people say that music these days is a load of shite. The same people say that songs today have too many sexual connotations and nothing in the way of political vitriol or appeasement of folk culture.

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Various Artists

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Brachiale Gewalt – Rammstein (#218)

by stegzy

Brachiale Gewalt – Rammstein

Brachiale Gewalt appears to be some remixed compilation album of Rammstein songs that is hard to come by. I had a look on Amazon. They’re out of stock.

Anyway, Rammstein. After watching David Lynch’s Lost Highway in the 1990s and being so utterly blown away, I went to get the soundtrack. On the soundtrack are two songs by German metal band Rammstein. Two songs that blow my mind in the same way that Lost Highway does. Go David Lynch!

My first purchase of music over the internet was Rammstein’s Sehnsucht which should have cost me about £20 but ended up costing me £2000 when my credit card details were used by cyber criminals to run up a massive bill on porn and other such things. Of course this was in the days when the internet was in its infancy and banks tended to think you were at fault if your card details were pinched by cyber criminals. Cheers First Direct!

So, Brachiale Gewalt by Rammstein. If you’re not a fan, I’d not bother with this album. If you’re a fan, I’d not bother with this album. If you’re one of those people that have pictures and tattoos of the band all over your house and body then great. Go for it.

best of Rammstein remixes

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The Best of: 1980-1990 – U2 (#175)

by stegzy

The Best of: 1980-1990 – U2

See now, I didn’t even know I had this when I wrote about U2’s previous “best of” . These are the songs I remember.

I remember Ian Vickery saying to me that U2 were the best thing to come out of Ireland and that failure to like U2 meant unworthiness. Then some years later the same boy said that U2 were old hat and that the Waterboys were where it was at.

I seem to recall someone else telling me that to like U2 meant you supported the IRA. Personally, I just thought they were rubbish. Possibly because they were as prog as Spandau Ballet.

Things were messed up in the 80s.

This compilation has all the popular songs used as background music in gritty dramas about “the troubles” or films where there would be lots of Irish youth being all gritty and hard done to. They just make me think of dark nights travelling down Hillfoot Avenue in the back of my dad’s Ford Orion.

best of U2

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The Best of the Doors (#174)

by stegzy

The Best of the Doors

Old Jim Morrison again with another Best of.

Thing with bands like The Doors, their entire catalogue is seen as next to perfect and it’s not like any new stuff is likely to emerge.

Long term followers of this project will recall that I’ve already covered a “best of” compilation for The Doors – A Collection. That compilation had all the same songs on as well. So in the interests of blog writing, I suggest you go and have a look at the entry.

1997 best of Doors (The)

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The Best of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (#170)

by stegzy

The Best of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

I could tell you my anecdote about wild cocaine fuelled sex parties. Or I could tell you about gay orgies on the Wirral. Or I could even tell you about a night in 2005 and how it relates to this album. But I won’t. Purely because to do so might end up with me in court.

Anyway, OMD. This compilation has all of their hits. Shame that they had to blow all that fame on dodgy girl bands. I mean really…..

best of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

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The Best of Gothic Rock – Various Artists [#167]

by stegzy

The Best of Gothic Rock- Various Artists
Only it’s not.

It’s not what I’d class as “Gothic” anyway. At least with my modern more refined ears. Instead I would call these two compilations “The Best of Big Boobed Operatic Singers Accompanying Euro Goth Metal Bands” .

Both albums contain a nice introduction to bands such as Nightwish, Within Temptation and Lacuna Coil. Ideal music for a middle aged wanna be goth to indulge in, reinvent themselves and annoy the wife with.

As we will see, these albums had a profound influence on my own musical tastes and we will be seeing a few of the bands featured, multiple times over the course of this project.

Track listing as follows:

Volume 2 =
1. Within Temptation – Mother Earth
2. Nightwish – Bless The Child
3. Beseech – Illusionate
4. Trail of Tears – Liquid View
5. Lacuna Coil – Swamped
6. Therion – Ljusalfheim
7. Myriads – The Sanctum Of My Soul
8. Flowing Tears – Serpentine
9. Within Temptation – Deceiver of Fools
10. Moonspell – Nocturna
11. Sentenced – Guilt and Regret
12. Divercia – Everlasting
13. After Forever – Monolith of Doubt
14. Tristinia – Tender Trip on Earth
15. Sirenia – Sister Nightfall

Volume 3 =

1 The Rasmus – In the Shadows 4:16
2 Within Temptation – Running Up That Hill 3:57
3 Epica – The Phantom Agony 9:00
4 Nightwish – End of All Hope 3:54
5 After Forever – Intrinsick 6:52
6 Tristania – A Sequel of Decay 6:31
7 Apocalyptica feat Nina Hagen – Seemann 4:00
8 Tarot – Pyre of Gods 4:34
9 Sonata Arctica – Victoria’s Secret 4:43
10 Sirenia – At Sixes and Sevens 6:44
11 Therion – Enter Vril-Ya 6:37
12 Penumbra – The Last Bewitchment 5:10
13 My Dying Bride – My Hope, My Destroyer 6:47
14 Autumn – Along Ethereal Levels 4:05

2002 best of Nightwish Sirenia Therion

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The Best of Depeche Mode Volume 1 – Depeche Mode [#162]

by stegzy

The Best of Depeche Mode Volume 1 – Depeche Mode

Worked a guy once who said that the greatest band in the world ever was Depeche Mode. Of course I mocked him.

A couple of years later after we had lost contact and I had changed jobs, I realised he was right. They’re so diverse. From plinky plonky synth shite in the early 80s to sophisticated synth ballads and remixes. DM are as multitalented as a room full of mature student graduates.

There are songs on this compilation that everyone over the age of 25 will remember and the urge to resist a bit of air drumming is hard.

2006 Depeche Mode

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#161 – Best of – Chris Isaak

by stegzy

Best of – Chris Isaak

Chris Isaak’s claim to fame is that he spat on me during a performance at the Royal Court in Liverpool in the 1990s. I forgave him, of course, purely because he was unaware I was there to be frank.

Anyway, this compilation brings together all Isaak’s best songs about broken relationships up to about 2003ish. It’s a good compilation.

Isaak has, of late, gone down the route of other songsmiths of similar calibre, focussing on the songs of those that came before them. While this is a good move on a creative scale, I worry that all originality might start to suffer. Like it did with Bryan Ferry. Still, while you can still listen to his better tunes on a Best of compilation, I don’t think we have to worry too much.

Chris Isaak

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#160 – The Best of 1990 – 2000 – U2

by stegzy

The Best of 1990 – 2000 – U2

At some point between 1990 and 1995 someone once suggested to me that I should like U2. Fact is, I couldn’t stand them.

Bono is a knob, this is a universal constant, but Adam Clayton sounds like someone who should be an estate agent and anyone that calls themselves “The Edge” is obviously trying to emulate someone calling themselves “The Cool” or “The Hipster”. With the same effect.

For some reason this compilation is in my collection. I can’t stand U2. There are one or two songs I tolerate but they’re not on this compilation. They’re nothing special. People used to say how U2 were the sound of Northern Ireland and how they spoke about the troubles through their music. Perhaps they did. Perhaps having grown up during that time, the songs I tolerate still resonate with me. But, please, someone needs to stick a sock in Bono’s mouth.

And a pillow case over his head.

In my mind, the gritty Northern Ireland sound was produced to a better standard by Mike Scott and his Waterboys. Unfortunately, while the Waterboys later went down the Folky God Bothering Environmentalist Rout, U2 went down the “We’re the best so get used to it” Self Opinionated Bollocksfest Route.

best of U2

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Stegzy's Music Project

A commentary on Stegzy's album collection

Definitive Simon & Garfunkel – Simon & Garfunkel [#356]

Decade – Duran Duran [#352]

Death to the Pixies – The Pixies [#351]

Dead Can Dance (1981 – 1998) – Dead Can Dance [#348]

De Afrekening Vols 4 & 5 – Various Artists [#346]

Cosmos – Vangelis [#312]

Contraband: The Best of – Men at Work [#308]

Concerto – Roxy Music [#300]

Complete Mike Oldfield – Mike Oldfield [#298]

Complete Madness – Madness [#297]

The Collection – Ultravox [#288]