A compilation has to be very meaningful to me before I consider putting it on my chart. I fell out of love with greatest hits albums a few years ago, although a few still hold a special place.
When it comes to live albums, I have a few in my main chart. I think a live album can be as important of a document of where a band was in their career and life as any studio LP can be. Live After Death by Iron Maiden and The Who's Live At Leeds being a couple that I return to more often than the majority of those band's respective studio records. _________________ Attention all planets of the solar federation: We have assumed control.
MercuryTurn your back on the pay-you-back last callProfile St. Louis
NOOOO! Compilations are great. I am not talking so much about "greatest hits" or "best ofs". But a compilation? As in an album of music taken from various sessions or times put together into a CD or a box set? That sometimes is the best thing in a discography. I'm not talking the best thing to introduce you to an artist, but legitimately the best album or set in a discography. Sometimes its the only thing you can get from an artist.
Obviously I am looking at this through the lens of my love for the blues. These are compilations (not best ofs particularly and certainl;y not greatest hits)
and those are all some of the greatest or the greatest thing available for those artists.
So no I don't have a negative view of compilations and definitely not Live albums or compilations of live albums or live albums which essentially work as best ofs played live etc. They all are legit looks at the artist and present new looks at the artists.
Now, if I see something like the eagles greatest hits or even a best of from an artist I adore like if I see the Essential Bob Dylan, I may think "come on man!", but those are a different kind of compilation in my view. _________________ -Ryan
Now, if I see something like the eagles greatest hits or even a best of from an artist I adore like if I see the Essential Bob Dylan, I may think "come on man!", but those are a different kind of compilation in my view.
Yeah, proper comps are totally cool. Various artists, rarities, tracks only previously released on 7", etc...
Unless previously unreleased in any format, I think comps fit a bit better in overall/custom charts compared to decade/year (I'm not putting a blues anthology in my Best of 2009 list, no more how good it is).
When I first saw the thread title, I got nervous. Thought BEA might be considering separating studio and live albums the way RYM did.
That's worse to me than separating original albums and compilations, but I'm against both.
My biggest argument against separating studio and live albums is that live albums only have a stigma in rock and some other pop genres. Many jazz buffs believe jazz is best experienced live. Practically all jazz studio albums are recorded live in the studio, so the distance between studio and live albums is much shorter.
My biggest single problem with excluding comps is that box sets are automatically considered comps on here, even when they're all completely unreleased material. Two of my favorite jazz albums are Miles' The Complete Cellar Door Sessions (the live sets most of Live-Evil is drawn from; the other sets are better than the ones used on Live-Evil) and his Live in Europe 1969: The Bootleg Series Vol. 2.
Also classic R&B and blues recordings before the late 60s weren't intended to be album experiences, so that puts classic R&B and Blues artists at a disadvantage on BEA, and the disadvantage would only be that much worse if comps were excluded. Of course, all recordings released before 1950 would be even more at a disadvantage than they already are. In my overall and decade charts, the only comps I allow (not counting those live Miles sets) are R&B and Blues. In my yearly charts I have a small number of rock comps.
Last edited by PurpleHazel on 04/24/2018 20:14; edited 2 times in total
You can have whatever you want in your chart. And anyone who says otherwise is simply wrong, closed minded and misguided. _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history
I definitely tend to prioritize studio albums, but I think compilations and live albums both have their place, and I have no problem using them, at least not in a limited fashion.
EP's are trickier. An EP can be fantastic, influential, not a weak moment....but they're by definition not an album. They occupy that weird space between album and single...though I've seen some, Pisces Iscariot and Incesticide come immediately to mind, that are as long or longer than many studio albums. It's a judgement call I guess, and it is your list after all, as Romanelli already pointed out. _________________ My "completed" lists:
1970s, 1980s
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