Let me tell you right off the bat that I HATE compilation albums! While they often offer you the best of the best from an artist, most of them are just cheap releases for the sake of more money for the record companies and that sickens me. Not every compilation album released is actually approved by the artists themselves. A few years ago, there were a couple of artists signed up with Roadrunner who didn't even acknowledge a compilation release signed under their name until someone else brought it up to them. If I knew a record company was fucking around with my music like that without informing me, I'd be pissed.
Another great example of horrible releases of these albums is Judas Priest's first two albums. Gull, the record company who own the rights to their first two albums have released many re-packages of those albums and gave them unique names rather than "The Best of Judas Priest" or "Judas Priest: Greatest Hits" or anything like that. They were actually whole new names to try and trick people into thinking they released a new album. I mean, how low can these record companies go with such things?!
On the subject of pointless re-releases, can someone tell me the point of Queen's Absolute Greatest? This is no joke, someone thought it would be a good idea to make a compilation album of...their three Greatest Hits albums! I mean, what was wrong with the albums they had already? Sure, Greatest Hits III wasn't that great but come on! The majority of the population would have had the Greatest Hits albums or most of the studio albums if they were a fan of Queen (by that, I mean going beyond Greatest Hits I+II and A Night at the Opera) and if anyone wanted to pick up some Queen albums, they'd get the Greatest Hits albums. There's absolutely no point to this Absolute Greatest album.
What sucks the most about these kind of albums are that they're the ones you'll see the most in stores. If you're looking for a particular artist who you want to get into, chances are you'll come into compilation albums which you won't ever need, even if they're sold for a cheap price. There's no real value to them and it's more satisfying listening to the studio albums and not these awful compilations. Not saying all compilation albums are bad, though but there is so much crap that never needed to be made in the first place.
In conclusion, unless it's something spectacular like Queen's Greatest Hits albums (not counting that stupid Absolute Greatest), compilation albums are horrid. They're mostly sad attempts to get more cash from customers and they're not as good as listening to individual albums. I hope you enjoyed my first music rant and I hope to make more sometime in the future.
