Here are this week’s top ten singles:
As with Jean-Michel Jarre, whose compilation back catalogue we examined here, Erasure have just added yet another one to their list. I was actually surprised how well it performed on the charts, but it proves that they are finally being recognised as they legends they truly are.
But is Always – The Very Best Of their best compilation, or should you go for a different choice? Once an artist has more than a couple of choices on the market, it can be very difficult to choose. Let’s attempt to find out by spuriously but studiously scoring each of their compilations. Firstly, what tracks do you get on each one?
| UK Chart Position | Pop! The First 20 Hits (1992) | Hits! The Very Best Of (2003) | Total Pop! The First 40 Hits (2009) | Pop 2! The Second 20 Hits (2009) | Essential (2012) | Always: The Very Best Of (2015) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who Needs Love (Like That) (1985) | 55 | * | * | * | * | ||
| Heavenly Action (1985) | 100 | * | * | ||||
| Oh L’Amour (1985) | 85 | * | * | * | * | ||
| Sometimes (1986) | 2 | * | * | * | * | * | |
| It Doesn’t Have to Be (1986) | 12 | * | * | * | |||
| Victim of Love (1987) | 7 | * | * | * | * | * | |
| The Circus (1987) | 6 | * | * | * | * | ||
| Ship of Fools (1988) | 6 | * | * | * | * | * | |
| Chains of Love (1988) | 11 | * | * | * | * | ||
| A Little Respect (1988) | 4 | * | * | * | * | ||
| Stop! (1988) | 2 | * | * | * | * | ||
| Drama! (1989) | 4 | * | * | * | |||
| You Surround Me (1989) | 15 | * | * | * | |||
| Blue Savannah (1990) | 3 | * | * | * | * | ||
| Star (1990) | 11 | * | * | * | |||
| Chorus (1991) | 3 | * | * | * | * | * | |
| Love to Hate You (1991) | 15 | * | * | * | * | ||
| Am I Right? (1991) | 22 | * | * | * | |||
| Breath of Life (1992) | 8 | * | * | * | |||
| Take a Chance on Me (1992) | 1 | * | * | * | * | ||
| Lay All Your Love on Me (1992) | “ | * | |||||
| Voulez-Vous (1992) | “ | * | |||||
| Who Needs Love (Like That) (Hamburg Mix) (1992) | 10 | * | * | ||||
| Always (1994) | 4 | * | * | * | * | * | |
| Run to the Sun (1994) | 6 | * | * | ||||
| I Love Saturday (1994) | 20 | * | * | * | |||
| Stay with Me (1995) | 15 | * | * | * | |||
| Fingers & Thumbs (Cold Summer’s Day) (1995) | 20 | * | * | * | |||
| Rock Me Gently (1996) | – | * | * | ||||
| In My Arms (1997) | 13 | * | * | * | |||
| Don’t Say Your Love is Killing Me (1997) | 23 | * | * | ||||
| Rain (1997) | – | * | * | ||||
| Freedom (2000) | 27 | * | * | * | |||
| Moon & The Sky (2001) | – | * | * | ||||
| Solsbury Hill (2003) | 10 | * | * | * | |||
| Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) (2003) | 14 | * | * | * | |||
| Oh L’Amour (August Mix) (2003) | 13 | * | + | ||||
| When Will I See You Again (2003) | – | * | |||||
| Video Killed the Radio Star (2003) | – | * | |||||
| Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime (2003) | – | * | |||||
| Breathe (2005) | 4 | * | * | * | |||
| Don’t Say You Love Me (2005) | 15 | * | * | ||||
| Here I Go Impossible Again (2005) | 25 | * | * | ||||
| All This Time Still Falling Out of Love (2005) | “ | + | |||||
| Boy (2006) | – | + | |||||
| I Could Fall in Love with You (2007) | 21 | * | * | ||||
| Sunday Girl (2007) | 33 | * | * | ||||
| Storm in a Teacup (2007) | – | * | * | ||||
| Always 2009 (2009) | – | * | * | ||||
| Be with You (2011) | – | * | |||||
| Elevation (2014) | – | * | |||||
| Sometimes (2015 Mix) (2015) | – | * |
Firstly, Erasure are a British duo, so it seems reasonable to score each album by the number (and size) of the UK hits that it contains. Let’s award a tenth of a point for each Top 100 hit; an extra point for each Top 40 hit; another for each Top 20 hit; one for each Top 10 hit; and another for a Top 5. Multiple tracks from the same release won’t get any extra points, and neither will the bonus tracks on Total Pop. By my calculation, that gives us:
| Pop! The First 20 Hits (1992) | Hits! The Very Best Of (2003) | Total Pop! The First 40 Hits (2009) | Pop 2! The Second 20 Hits (2009) | Essential (2012) | Always: The Very Best Of (2015) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tracks | 21 | 20 | 41 | 20 | 16 | 20 |
| Top 100 | 21 | 18 | 36 | 15 | 13 | 17 |
| Top 40 | 18 | 17 | 33 | 15 | 12 | 15 |
| Top 20 | 17 | 16 | 27 | 10 | 11 | 15 |
| Top 10 | 12 | 11 | 16 | 4 | 6 | 12 |
| Top 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 9 |
| Total Carried Forward | 7.4 | 6.9 | 12.0 | 4.6 | 4.5 | 6.8 |
Any compilation worth its salt should always contain a reasonable cross-section of existing material. We should therefore award points for each album that was available at the time of release. These will be distributed as follows:
… and so-on. For the sake of this calculation, we’ll be pretending that Union Street doesn’t exist. That gives us the following scores:
| Pop! The First 20 Hits (1992) | Hits! The Very Best Of (2003) | Total Pop! The First 40 Hits (2009) | Pop 2! The Second 20 Hits (2009) | Essential (2012) | Always: The Very Best Of (2015) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total from previous table | 7.4 | 6.9 | 12.0 | 4.6 | 4.5 | 6.8 |
| number of studio albums represented / available | 5 / 5 | 10 / 10 | 12 / 12 | 7 / 7 * | 7 / 13 | 10 / 15 |
| Album points | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 5 | 6 |
| Total Carried Forward | 17.4 | 16.9 | 22.0 | 14.6 | 9.5 | 12.8 |
* Even though there were 12 albums available when Pop 2 appeared, it seems unfair to penalise it when it only ever claimed to be a second volume, so I have awarded it the full 10 points here.
Most of the compilations charted, so let’s give them a bonus for performing well, in line with the singles points above:
| Pop! The First 20 Hits (1992) | Hits! The Very Best Of (2003) | Total Pop! The First 40 Hits (2009) | Pop 2! The Second 20 Hits (2009) | Essential (2012) | Always: The Very Best Of (2015) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total from previous table | 17.4 | 16.9 | 22.0 | 14.6 | 9.5 | 12.8 |
| UK Album Chart Peak | 1 | 15 | 21 | – | – | 9 |
| Bonus points | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Total Carried Forward | 22.4 | 19.9 | 24.0 | 14.6 | 9.5 | 16.8 |
Since Total Pop is a double album, it is gaining slightly unfairly here. Clearly a double album appeals less to the casual fan. By choice, you might go for the cheapest, so let’s subtract the difference based on difference from the cheapest, using the current price of each release (courtesy of Amazon UK).
| Pop! The First 20 Hits (1992) | Hits! The Very Best Of (2003) | Total Pop! The First 40 Hits (2009) | Pop 2! The Second 20 Hits (2009) | Essential (2012) | Always: The Very Best Of (2015) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total from previous table | 22.4 | 19.9 | 24.0 | 14.6 | 9.5 | 16.8 |
| Current CD Price | £4.99 | £5.00 | £11.66 | £9.47 | £13.59 | £12.99 |
| Current Download Price | – | £7.99 | £12.99 | – | £6.19 | £7.99 |
| CD Price Difference | £0.00 | £0.01 | £6.67 | £4.48 | £8.60 | £8.00 |
| Download Price Difference | – | £1.80 | £6.80 | – | £0.00 | £1.80 |
| Points deducted | 0 | 0.1 | 6.7 | 4.5 | 0 | 1.8 |
| Total Carried Forward | 22.4 | 19.8 | 17.3 | 10.1 | 9.5 | 15.0 |
Some of these releases come with a nice set of bonus features, so let’s add a point or two in honour of them…
| Pop! The First 20 Hits (1992) | Hits! The Very Best Of (2003) | Total Pop! The First 40 Hits (2009) | Pop 2! The Second 20 Hits (2009) | Essential (2012) | Always: The Very Best Of (2015) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total from previous table | 22.4 | 19.8 | 17.3 | 10.1 | 9.5 | 15.0 |
| Optional Bonus Features | None | Bonus disc with megamix | Box set with live disc, extra downloads | None | None | Two bonus discs of remixes |
| Points Added | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Total Carried Forward | 22.4 | 20.8 | 22.3 | 10.1 | 9.5 | 20.0 |
Finally, it definitely isn’t fair to listeners if you don’t try to squeeze as much as possible onto each disc, so we should subtract points for wasted space on each disc. A release therefore loses a point for each minute below 78 minutes of total possible duration.
| Pop! The First 20 Hits (1992) | Hits! The Very Best Of (2003) | Total Pop! The First 40 Hits (2009) | Pop 2! The Second 20 Hits (2009) | Essential (2012) | Always: The Very Best Of (2015) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total from previous table | 22.4 | 20.8 | 22.3 | 10.1 | 9.5 | 20.0 |
| Possible Duration | 78:00 | 78:00 | 156:00 | 78:00 | 78:00 | 78:00 |
| Duration | 78:24 | 77:52 | 155:54 | 77:30 | 61:02 | 76:01 |
| Points deducted | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -17 | -2 |
| Final score | 22.4 | 20.8 | 22.3 | 10.1 | -7.5 | 18.0 |
So there you have it! Always: The Very Best Of may be performing well in the charts as we speak, but we have proved using actual maths that it’s not quite as good as some of its predecessors. Depending on how much of a completist you want to be, you should choose between Pop! The First 20 Hits, and Total Pop! The First 40 Hits instead.
And please spare a brief thought for poor Essential, which managed to end up with negative points…
Produced by Apollo 440, Addicted to Bass was the only single of note for Puretone, peaking at number 2 back in 2002:
Hot on the heels of the collaborative mini-album with Robyn, Do it Again, Röyksopp quickly reappeared with what they described as their last album “in this format”, The Inevitable End. Time will tell what they actually mean by that, but one can only guess that they were starting to find the two years off, two years on pattern of modern music somewhat stifling creatively. Hopefully they’ll come up with something else, rather than just disappear into obscurity, as others have before them.
But The Inevitable End is still an album that can be enjoyed on many levels. It opens with the darkly analogue sound of Skulls, hinting slightly in places at the glorious sound of their second album The Understanding (2005). The vocals are curious and heavily obscured by effects, but the overall sound is exceptional – this is a great way to enter an album.
Reworked from the Do it Again album comes Monument, now with an enormous analogue counter-melody, and sounding even better than it did originally. The standard here really is exceptionally high, and it continues, as Monument drifts into what might be the best track on this album, the adorable Sordid Affair, another piece which might have fitted beautifully on the second album alongside What Else is There?
There is an unmistakable air of introspection here. Melody AM (2001) was naïve and Nordic; The Understanding was mysterious; Junior (2009) was loud and powerful; and somehow The Inevitable End is all of those at once. But we don’t want to think of it as any kind of end, so you have to put those thoughts out of your mind.
You Know I Have to Go is the first of several collaborations on here with Jamie from The Irrepressibles, and introduces us to his exceptionally emotive voice. It’s the longest track on here, clocking in at seven and a half minutes, but it’s also quite exceptional. And then, with a bit of a bang, Susanne Sundfør turns up to deliver the brilliant Save Me. Like most of this album, it’s huge, powerful, and entirely unforgettable.
The enormous pads that herald I Had This Thing are entirely appropriate, as Jamie Irrepressible turns up to deliver an exceptional song. It was later released as one of the singles, and deservedly so – it’s absolutely brilliant.
If anything lets this album down, it’s Rong. Even then, it’s only a short and momentary blip, with Robyn suddenly and inexplicably swearing at listeners about how much she hates them. But never mind, Here She Comes Again quickly picks things up again.
A long time before this album appeared, Running to the Sea came along as its lead single, and I predicted great things for this album. Well, it’s always good to be proved right, but this song is still one of the most exceptional pieces of music that Röyksopp have ever recorded. An exceptional vocal from Susanne Sundfør, set to an enormous, moving backing track. This is truly faultless.
Any other artist could have given up after something like that, but for some reason Röyksopp keep going. All of the final three tracks, Compulsion, Coup de Grace, and Thank You are premium quality. What a send-off this is.
It would also be hard to mention this album without adding a word for the superlative second disc, with another five songs, some of which are more than deserving of a place on the main album. But let’s hope that this isn’t really the end, but if it does have to be, then it’s an amazing send-off.
One of those things that really puts a crimp in your day is when you get up in the morning and discover one of your heroes has died. To hear that David Bowie died so young is particularly saddening too.
This should have been posted yesterday, but was omitted due to an administrative error (I forgot). Better late than never…
At the beginning of the year, it’s always time to celebrate the best of the previous one, and so we enter the latest season of awards. We’ll look at the nominations for this year’s BRIT Awards next week, but first, more importantly, here’s a selection of the nominees for the 2016 Stowaway Awards.
We’ll find out the winners in a few weeks’ time!
Back to the random jukebox, which this week has selected Blur‘s The Universal for us:
As we worm our way gently into 2016, it’s time to highlight a few reviews from this blog that you might well have missed.
See also, Volume 6, Volume 5, and you can probably find the rest for yourself with a quick search…
About once a year, I like to take a look at the search engine terms that have brought people to this site, including the many that make me chuckle. Here are some recent highlights:
Are indeed all artists that have been mentioned previously on this blog. See here, here, here, here, here, and here.
IMDB is probably your best place for queries like this, and “no, he wasn’t,” is probably the answer to your question.
I’ve looked again, and I don’t think Davina McCall has ever presented the Breast British Male Award at the BRITs, although she did present the entire ceremony in 2000 and 2003.
Inexplicably, my tag for Wham! comes first on Google when you search for this. The short answer, I’m afraid, is that I’ve no idea, but again IMDB might be a good place to start searching.
It’s a rumour that seems to pop up all over the internet, but it isn’t honestly something I could care less about. You can learn more about Terence here, and Paula here, and they did turn up together on the first B.E.F. album, reviewed here.
It’s impressive that I would turn up on your search results, as I’ve only mentioned them once, and even then only in passing. Try their official website instead.
See above! Their website is here.
I don’t have a list unfortunately, but you can read my thoughts on the subject here, and you can also learn how to get rid of the autotune effect but leave it on here.
When I started researching this, I was thinking that I don’t think she has ever been on Cribs – she would certainly be an unlikely candidate. But then I discovered I have written about her before, when she presented the Q Spirit of Independence award to The Cribs in 2012. So there’s your answer!
Definitely not – you can read about their latest album The Violet Flame here.
If you want to see more, here are the 2015, 2014, and 2013 editions.
Music for stowaways 