Who remembers compilation albums?

[FairyJuice]

You don't see them too much anymore, apart from the NOW ones. I used to love the double cds, filled with a cornucopia of cool and current artists. You could get them in all genres. It was one of the main pre-internet ways of exploring new bands without taking the risk of buying their whole albums. Great for walks in the summertime with your discman too as you had an excellent varied selection of happy/sad songs to keep you company

My favourites were a series of early 00s rock/indie ones that my older brother used to get from Britannia, can't remember the name of them now but one had Swallowed by Bush, Place Your Hands by Reef and The Day We Caught the Train by Ocean Colour Scene on it. Proper hits of the summer I suppose today's equivalent is Spotify Discover, but it somehow doesn't seem the same.

What were your favourites?

Any 90s indie/grunge one's or pure garage compilation

Still listen to both now and make my own compilations

Love Ocean Colour Scene too! And saw Reef a couple of years ago, the singer still sounds amazing!

You can look up Spotify playlists which do similar things.

But yes I remember the good old days - and recording songs off the radio, frantically hoping they didn't start talking over them!

@FairyJuice - I think the one you are referring to is the Shine series! I still have 3 of my Shine CDs - Shine 3, Shine 5 and Shine:The Best of 97! The greatest compilations ever.

Compilations are great! I still buy them - there are plenty of folk compilations, for instance. In the 90s, I used to get a heavy metal magazine that had a compilation CD with each issue - I can't remember what the mag was but I still have the CDs.

NOW was great back in the day (haven't bought one for over 20 years, though) - I've still got the first one and numbers 2 - 12 on a mix of vinyl and cassette. And I have a turntable and cassette deck to play them on! Happy days.

I still have a couple of shine ones too. (Blue and red covers)

Loved them

You've just reminded me of Street Vibes. My god they're the sound of my teen years - I'm off to Spotify!

Brittaina Music was brilliant , just for CD's! (Not sure if you could get vinyl too ? )
One of my old colleagues used to work for them! You got a catalogue through the door and you sent back the slip with your orders by post! Then waited for them to come.
It worked quiet well.
I did have 1 to 4 Now on vinyl once ( till my old tenants stole them , but that's another story)
Loved a mash up album of all the hits , but by CD 4 the word ' hit' was stretched. Or the novelty songs were on it.
You can still buy the Now CD's I think it's about 105 now or something! 😀

Definitely Shine 5. Can't remember any of the previous 4 or any after but I still have a cd of it that I have in my car.

Early 80s I had a double LP, one side was called 'Chart Heat' and the other side 'Chart Beat' - amazing !

My granddaughter Compiled a playlist on Apple Music and sent us all the link on the family WhatsApp. The modern version of a compilation album?

I had Shine 3, 5 and 7. I have no idea what happened with the even numbers

I use apple playlists. ‘Kebab on the night bus’ is a favourite.

Got to love wiki

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shine_(compilation_series)

Years ago there was Soft Metal, Pure Soft Metal etc which I loved, I shall look for them on Spotify!

And the Best album in the world ever ones

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best...Album_in_the_World...Ever!#Volume_1(1995)

I remember the Soft Metal series - I didn't have them but I borrowed them from a friend to tape bits off.

Some genius has turned the Shine ones (I had 1, 2 and 4) into a Spotify playlist :-) Not me, I might add, but I do have it on quite a lot

Movie Killers was great. One of my first cd purchases with tracks from the tarantino films.

And Mix Tapes

This thread is taking me back to my early teens when an album represented a huge outlay that had to be saved up for. Of course they were in the main, relatively more expensive than they are now - a double album used to cost about £8 in the era I'm thinking of, but that was four weeks' pocket money.

I used to like the ministry of sound chill out ones with the likes of Lemon Jelly and Royksopp. But the last time I bought one (years ago) in Asda the young guy on the check out picked it up and looked askance at it like the outdated thing it was, so I suspected then they were on their way out.

There were some surprisingly good ones that came free with magazines. Was Vox a music magazine? I seem to remember NME having tapes too, especially in the summer around festival time.

I remember when the Now compilations had pigs

I loved them OP! I had a double cd, brown cover- called ‘just great songs’. Had all the ones you mentioned on it and lots more indie classics!

It wasn't a Shine album, though we did have a few of them and I've just had a lovely trip down memory lane reading through the tracklists on Wikipedia So many forgotten treasures!

I'm pretty sure the one I'm on about was from a series with the words rock or indie anthems in the title.

Britannia was indeed a fantastic service! My brother was a few years older than me and had a job so was flash with the cash and I'm pretty sure these albums shaped my musical tastes (which in turn influenced my friendship circles).

And yy to magazines with free CDs! I remember having a few kerrang ones that had a few belters on them.

Spotify and apple playlists are the new mixtapes