Are Compilation Albums Dead?

As a man who enjoys making playlists and discovering new music, the compilation album used to be the perfect place for the uneducated or the completist to go and add to their collection or find new cool songs or genres.
Back since the days of tapes, Walkman and even the short lived fad of the mini disc (remember those?), people have always been making compilations or playlists, be it for the long drive across the country, attempting to woo a special someone or just recommending some songs to a friend, parent or sibling perhaps.

Nowadays, however, all I seem to see is the same old rubbish chucked out every 6 months in different guises. Case in point, and what drove me to write this article: “Now! That’s What I Call Drive!” Great! A CD packed full of the best driving songs to enliven those boring motorway journeys with rock n roll one thinks, yeah? Nope.

They chucked in a couple of tracks with tenuous links, and the rest was just pop hits, the same rubbish that’s on all the other 88 normal Nows. Other thing is, the majority don’t even work. If you tried driving to “Beneath Your Beautiful” or “Hallelujah” you’d probably fall asleep at the wheel on a lovely eventual airbag as you are plowed into by a domino effect of cars bored of waiting, or get laughed at as one by one elderly men in Morris Marina’s or conservative middle class Lexus drivers with caravans scream past.

Thing is, if you’re gonna do a theme, tailor it to the theme! Taking a quick look, apparently there are some tracks that are chilled, rock, for driving AND running! If I was gonna do a driving one for example, I would personally have a bit of Thin Lizzy, Golden Earring, some Iron Maiden, that kinda stuff. It just all smacks of making a quick buck nowadays, and that’s sad.

Even greatest hits are being pumped out every few years to line rich band’s coffers. I can’t even count how many “Best Ofs” Aerosmith or The Rolling Stones have had over the years, and the fact that Scouting for Girls and The Saturdays actually have greatest hits? (Seriously?) Someone’s laughing all the way to the bank. This kind of compiling should really be a skill, like DJ’ing used to be, but now it’s just someone sticking 40 unconnected pop songs together with a different label on it.

Now, DJ’ing at nights out, especially rock and metal nights, which I used to frequent, is another bug bear for a few people. Guys mixing songs on decks, beat matching and making songs link together is all but gone in quite a few places, replaced by a steadily growing army of kids with virtual DJ sticking songs on without thought of how they fit.

As a kid, that’s how I discovered a lot of bands and songs, you’d get the specific album and listen through it and a song would catch your ear, you would say to yourself “what is this!? It’s amazing!” Then maybe a few months later you’d be at their concerts and have all their records simply because a friend recommended a greatest hits or you wanted to rediscover the 80’s.

One of the last books I fully read without putting it down half way through, making a sandwich, getting distracted and never going back to, was a touching story called “Love Is A Mix Tape” by Rob Sheffield. It was a memoir about a boy trying to woo a girl out of his league in the decade of grunge, her sudden loss, and the music that brought them together. Painstakingly put together playlists align each chapter, all songs meaning something, telling a story which brought back memories and helped bring closure. This is the kind of situation the compilation was made for, not soulless corporate greed.

This may all seem quite anal and petty, but I just feel that the art and the point of making a good compilation album should be something that is done right. Plus, I don’t want to see Bastille or Maroon 5 on yet another one of these rip off commercial vehicles. It can be brought back from the dead, I believe, but it needs to be thought out, not just thrown together. I want the innocence of discovery to be returned to me, the rush of hearing new sounds for the first time dotted around your favourite songs. I don’t want to feel like I’m just turning on another homogenised radio station.

P.S.

My quickly thought out driving album, as an example:
Iron Maiden – The Trooper
Golden Earring – Radar Love
Motorhead – Ace of Spades
Steve Earle – Copperhead Road
Thin Lizzy – Don’t Believe a Word
Jimi Hendrix – Crosstown Traffic
REO Speedwagon – Back on the Road Again
Creedence Clearwater Revival – Fortunate Son
Eagles – Life in the Fast Lane
Primal Scream – Rocks
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Higher Ground
Talking Heads – Road to Nowhere
Steppenwolf – Born to be Wild
Black Stone Cherry – Drive
Crobot – Nowhere To Hide
Muse – Knights of Cydonia
Queens of the Stone Age – Go With The Flow
Four Year Strong – Just Drive
Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody (mainly Wayne’s World referential purposes)
Jimmy Eat World – Night Drive (for reflecting on the way home)
REM – Drive (for reflecting on the way home)

P.P.S None of those tracks make that Now! Compilation.”