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Any music fan will tell you that the laziest way to get into a band is to buy their greatest hits and then purchase a few albums.  After years of hearing the Talking Heads on the radio I went out and bought their ‘Best of’ and actually regret it.  As much as I would have liked to take the time to buy the albums, part of me needed a quick solution to an odd fix.  I just wanted to hear the songs that I knew and liked all on one disc and not spend over $30.

The ease of a ‘Best of’ or ‘Greatest Hits’ is terrible for all of us.  Instead of us getting to know a band based on the majority of their body of work, we opt for the easy way out and buy the retrospective album.  Although, sometimes I will buy one of these albums because the band has released new songs, different versions, rare b-sides, or other out of print material.  For example: I bought Nirvana’s Greatest Hits album because of the song ‘You Know You’re Right’, which was not going to be released anywhere else.  This is also a clever marketing technique by labels that want to cash in on a big name band.

I’ll break down and buy one of these albums as a quick fix, but I also am diligent enough to go and buy a proper album.  You don’t want to make your album collection bloated with ‘Greatest Hits’ albums, and then it looks like you don’t take the time to really get to know a band and just gloss over most of their catalog.  Unless the band is obscure and you can’t find their regular albums, then it is cool to have a ‘Greatest Hits’ and only then.