''Best of'' albums

I general, I avoid ''Best Of'' albums: The deciding factor for which songs are among the ''best'' for a band seems to be based on the sale of singles, airplay, and the like -- in other words, which songs got famous.

In contrast, the ''regular'' albums I own for a lot of my favorite bands -- Devo, for example -- are filled with songs that **I** think are great, but non-fans haven't ever heard of.

So, I tend to avoid ''Best Of'' albums, choosing instead to buy the entire album.


On the other hand, I've been burned by this before: buying the whole album, only to discover that, yeah, that one song is the only **good** song on the album. In this case, that hit song is usually a marked departure from the sound and feel of the rest of the songs -- a bit of a quirk. (As I recall, Wall of Voodoo's ''I'm on a Mexican Radio'' is like this -- but it's been a long, long while since I've borrowed the album.) Or, it was written by an outside songwriter.


--GG


--GG