mr dave

depends on the situation and the material provided in the compilation.

if i'm already familiar with the artist and its strictly a 'greatest hits' featuring absolutely nothing i don't already have on album i 'might' think about it if it happens to be cheap and a great mix of an artist's catalog.

compilations that feature a mix of a few hits and unreleased / live / remixed material will definitely pique my interest and get considered the same way as any new album does against my wallet.

__________________
i am the universe

Janszoon

I think best of compilations are kind of pointless in this day and age. If I just want particular hits by a band I can just download the individual songs.

__________________
A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man

Time & Place

25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die

last.fm

mr dave

i like going through best-of racks in gas stations while roadtripping. you never know what you'll find that you've either forgotten about, never got around to, or simply didn't pre-load onto the ipod.

__________________
i am the universe

Sljslj

I'm not a big fan of best of compilations, but I can give best ofs credit for getting me into Blue Oyster Cult.

__________________

almauro

Sometimes, it's the best way to hear a band, for instance Helmet - Unsung, and Mountain - The Best of..., are their best records, but in most cases, best of compilations are made imperfect by including weaker material from early and latter eras, diluting the playlist, making them less a greatest songs package, but instead turning the compilation into a general overview. The majority of comps. usually end w/ a couple of duds from the last couple of albums when the groups had reached full decline, and are rarely composed of just prime tracks.

__________________
rock n music blog

kirkus84

Yes. I feel if you're showing someone who has never heard a band/ singer before you should show them their greatest hits first. If the band is that successful and they have a best of album that's what I would do. That way you're introducing them to their best work and then later on they can get the complete albums if they like the band.

noise

i dig 'em. sometimes i like a band but not well enough to warrent getting their full discography (like The Cure or New Order), so i just get a nice multi-disc comp.

other times when i really dig a band, i pick them up for the unreleased tracks and remixes they often contain.

__________________
my flac collection

Goblin Tears

Funny I should see this post, as I was just going to use The Cure as an example of how a greatest hits compilation can be a gross misrepresentation of a band. The Cure have a menacing, almost nihilistic outlook that rarely makes it on to the charts, but pretty much defines the essence of the band. Tracks from their first 'grim trilogy' such as Seventeen Seconds, Faith, and Pornography were excluded in favour of their more commercial late eighties poppy music. Robert Smith himself has stated that Pornography perfectly captured the essence of the band, but if memory serves me, not one track from that album made it on to their greatest hits. Bruce Springsteen's greatest hits album follows suit here.

An example of a greatest hits collection done right? Madonna's The Immaculate Collection is about as perfect as can be, putting all her eighties gems though a filler filter and distilling them to perfection.

In short, it depends on the collection, obviously! Approach them with caution and reserve judgement for proper studio albums.

duga

I've known a lot of people that have judged the Cure based solely on that GH comp. A couple people even poked fun at me for listening to them not knowing how dark they really were. I started with that GH myself and had no clue about their dark side (except for "A Forest"...which ended up being my favorite track on the GH). I actually really enjoyed the poppy stuff and decided I liked them enough to go for full albums. I started with Disintegration, so you can imagine how surprised I was when I brought that one home. Next was Pornography and then I wondered where the hell all those happy songs went.

__________________
Confusion will be my epitaph...

Landon

I've loads of Greatest Hits compilations that I bought when I was younger and just getting into music, but I sort of regret having them now. I never buy them now because I think it sort of ruins listening to the album because you'l have heard the hit songs many times before. For instance I had the Red Hot Chili peppers Greatest Hits for ages and when I got Blood Sugar Sex Magik it wasn't that good because I heard Under the Bridge etc. so many times. So now i generally stay away from them and prefer to get the debut album of what I'm interested in.