Death to the Compilation!

My parents, bless their hearts, for the last two Christmases have inevitably bought me one thing that always gets returned. Interestingly enough, both times it has been almost the exact same thing. In an effort to help me complete my Bob Dylan discography, the 'rents always set out with a clearly defined list of albums I don't yet have and the one or two that I want most. Unfortunately, they've had no luck and have, instead, come back with a Greatest Hits or Number 1s collection, instead. It's a well-meaning gesture. But when it comes to my favorite artists, I want the real thing.

In most circumstances, there is an art and a purpose to the production of an album. Track two follows track one for some very specific purpose. Track fourteen is the last song for another very specific purpose. The reasons are varied, depending on artist or producer. Sometimes songs are tracked by the order they were written or recorded. Often times they're tracked in order to tell a specific story and still other times they're tracked in order to evenly space out slow and fast songs. Whatever the album, there is almost always a reason for the track orders. Maybe the middle isn't such a big deal but the producer thought that a few lines of notes needed to be the opening sound. Maybe a that last song on the album is also the song that the band will play to end each concert. Either way, someone somewhere wanted me to listen to the songs on an album in a particular order. I owe it to everyone involved, including myself, to follow their advice.

You miss out on that well-orchestrated musical flow or lyrical story when you only get one or two songs from a specific album. Furthermore, most lifelong musicians will inevitably have an album or two that produced no chart toppers and were originally considered "flops." Those "Number 1s" albums obviously won't have any samples from those albums. There is something so beautifully intimate about listening to someone's entire discography in order. You can note subtle changes in everything from religious beliefs to relationship status. If you know even a little about the artist's life, the experience is only multiplied. Missing those details has to be a sin, right?

In other words: Compilations are a crime against humanity. Long live discography junkies!