I consider myself a bit of a completionist when it comes to music. If I like a band or musician, I typically want to hear as much of their recorded work as possible. This occasionally comes at the expense of being out of the loop on hyped-up new artists, but I pride myself on having a thorough knowledge of the music I do enjoy. Music streaming has made it possible to hear everything from the most popular of hits to the deepest of cuts with the click of a button, but I still enjoy owning hard copies of my music, and think of it as a collection.
Even completionists have their limits though. No matter how much I love a band, getting every release of theirs can feel a little excessive past a certain point. With a finite amount of time and money, you have to draw the line somewhere, unless you really are that much of a fanatic about a particular act. Where this line is depends entirely on the listener, but I tend to draw it about halfway through this list.
Here is the Indiecator’s ranking and prioritization of types of musical releases:
1. Studio albums
When bands meet their maker, they will be judged by the quality of their studio albums. Also called a full-length release or an LP (long play) when dealing with records, studio albums are most often just called “albums.” If you say “I like Interpol’s Marauder, but their first album is my favorite,” everyone will assume you mean Turn on the Bright Lights, not something like the Precipitate EP. Studio albums are the backbone of an artist’s discography. They could be a few super-long tracks (looking at you, Godspeed You! Black Emperor) or have dozens of shorter songs (looking at you, Magnetic Fields). They can be anywhere from under half an hour long to over two hours. There’s no limits as to what a band can do with a studio album….even if most turn out to be 10-12 tracks and 40-50 minutes long. Basically, if you like a band and don’t rely on streaming for 100% of your listening, you probably own at least one of their studio albums. If I like an artist, I usually will try to get all of their studio albums, unless said albums are of really inconsistent or consistently declining quality.
For posterity’s sake, I’m including concept albums as a type of studio album. After all, you’re probably not going to skip a studio album just because it has a unifying theme or tells a story.
2. B-side compilations
B-side compilations are the unsung heroes of the album world. For the uninitiated, when songs were released as singles on vinyl, the more popular song would have the A-side of the record, while the B-side (or flip side) contained a less popular song (with exceptions, of course). With new technology replacing vinyl, you’d think that’d be the end of the B-side, but these tracks live on. Digital and CD singles often contain B-sides, and most importantly, these tracks almost never make it to studio albums. Combine B-sides with bonus tracks from vendor-exclusive or international album releases, and you probably have an album’s worth of music after a few years. B-side compilations are the vacuums that suck up these scattered tracks, ensuring you don’t have to hunt down multiple studio album versions and each single just to hear all these rarities. Sure, most B-sides and bonus tracks don’t make it to studio albums for a reason, and there’s bound to be a lot of filler in these compilations, but a few are full of some of the artist’s best work. Can you imagine Belle and Sebastian without Push Barman to Open Old Wounds or The Smiths without Louder Than Bombs? B-side compilations, I salute you.
3. EPs
Small but mighty, EPs fulfill an important role in discographies. EPs, or extended plays, typically contain anywhere from three to seven tracks, and tend to run from ten to thirty minutes long (unless you’re the National and call a 48-minute album with a dozen tracks an EP). Some differentiate between “mini albums” and EPs, but both are the middle ground between singles and studio albums. The best EPs are those that contain all new material, a handful of tracks found nowhere else, but many contain at least one track that makes it to the studio album. Oftentimes, EPs are what a band or musician puts out before their full-length debut, so it’s always interesting to find early EPs that served as a pitch to radio stations or record labels. Personally, these are a lower priority for me than studio albums or B-side compilations, but I still seek them out if I really like a band. More importantly, I’ve found EPs to be the perfect length of album to enjoy while preparing and eating breakfast in the morning.
4. Split albums
Split albums are fairly rare, so let’s not dwell on them. These releases occupy an odd space between collaborative albums, where two or more artists perform the same songs together, and compilations by “various artists” where each track is by a different artist. Typically, split releases feature just two artists, each allocated half of the album’s tracks. The quality of a split album depends entirely on who’s featured. Like both bands? Great! Like one and don’t know the other? Great way to get introduced into a new musician! Like one but don’t like the other? Well, just skip those tracks I guess. Don’t like either? Why are you listening to this?
5. “Best of” compilations
Alright, hear me out. “Best of” albums have one major function: to get you into an artist. Let’s say a band has been around a while, and you’ve always been curious about them. However, you take a look at their discography on Wikipedia and are intimidated by a list of ten or more studio albums, not knowing where to start. Ideally, a “best of” album would help here, compiling the band’s top singles and fan favorites over the years into one very accessible package. In practice, these are often a cash grab by record labels who want to squeeze more money out of existing recordings, just like The Smiths’ song “Paint a Vulgar Picture.” Existing fans usually have no reason to buy these compilations, especially in the age where you can make your own “best of” playlists, and fandoms often take umbrage at which songs are included or omitted from the tracklist. However, labels are notorious for tacking on a few “previously unreleased” tracks to entice completionists, and I’ll admit to taking the bait if it’s a good compilation with a handful of songs I haven’t heard before. Otherwise, “best of” albums are best left as introductions for new converts.
6. Live albums
I like buying albums. I like seeing bands live. I typically do not buy live albums. Seeing a band live, feeling the crowd’s energy, singing and dancing along, and enjoying the between-song banter is a great experience, but it’s often one that doesn’t translate well to a recording. The most disappointing live albums are those where the musician or band tries their hardest to sound like the studio version of themselves, so you basically end up with an existing album that’s just interspersed with cheers and applause from the crowd. I can only think of three reasons to get a live album. First: if it’s full of alternate arrangements of tracks, such as the band performing an acoustic set or getting a full backing orchestra. Second: if the artist is known for their onstage banter, and the tracks showcase how entertaining they are live. Third: if the album contains tracks you can’t find elsewhere, such as ideas that never made it to the studio or impromptu covers. I’m sure there are some bands that sound amazing or even better live, but from an indie music perspective, where so many already embrace lo-fi recording or “playing live in a studio,” live albums often fall short of my “to get “ list.
7. Singles
To make an important distinction here, there’s two kinds of singles: album and non-album. The former are basically useless, containing a track found on a studio album and one or more B-sides that you hope will later show up on a compilation. The latter are just annoying, containing a single found nowhere else that you also hope will end up on a compilation somewhere. Basically, singles exist for diehard fans into vinyl now. Maybe the single’s album art is really cool and looks good on a wall. If a single contains enough B-sides to edge it into EP territory (three or more), I’ll consider getting it, or maybe if it’s a really good non-album single that’s not on any compilations. For everything else, studio albums and my beloved B-side compilations make singles completely redundant.
8. Christmas albums/singles
Oh I know, I’m such a Scrooge. Like “best of” compilations, Christmas music has one major purpose, only this purpose is even more limited in scope. If you want to get into the festive spirit between late November and late December, then these specifically-themed songs or albums are perfect. I don’t blame you if you want to blast Sufjan Stevens’s Songs for Christmas while you decorate a tree or have an ugly sweater party. However, want to listen to Christmas music in January? Too late buddy. Want to listen in early November? Creeping Christmas! Want to listen in April? You goddamn psycho! The lack of reciprocity between when you can play non-Christmas music and Christmas music is striking. You can listen to I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning by Bright Eyes literally any day of the year. You have about a month where A Christmas Album doesn’t feel awkward. I’m not a huge fan of Christmas music to begin with, and get sick of all the old standbys after hearing them a dozen times by December 1. While I’m a little more forgiving when my favorite indie artists make Christmas songs, I don’t buy music I can only really enjoy approximately 8.33% of the year.
9. Remix albums
Remixes are already very hit or miss. They’re often included as B-sides, thrown onto EPs, or included as the “bonus tracks” on deluxe or editions of albums. In these circumstances, I already feel a little cheated that I’m not getting an original song. I’ll occasionally come across a fantastic remix that I enjoy just as much if not more than the original, but these are a rarity wholly dependent on the talent of the remixer. For every great remix I hear, there seems to be no shortage of completely forgettable ones where a DJ thought “this track, but with a drum machine beat!” or “this track, but with a bass drop!” Most frustrating of all are releases that put multiple remixes of the same track one after the other – I can’t think of a single song I like enough to listen to minor variations of five times in a row. Similarly, no matter how much I like I band, I’m completely okay with skipping their remix albums.
10. Bootlegs
Hey buddy, let’s keep it legal here! This being an indie-centric list, I’ve left off mixtapes, which are much less common with indie music than in hip-hop. Mixtapes are distributed by the artist for free, allowing for creative control, whereas bootlegs are the fans’ machinations. There’s usually no official track listing nor album cover, and tracks can range from demos distributed by the band for publicity to low-quality live recordings done by a rando in the audience. As such, they’re less “a box of chocolates” than “a handful of chocolates that a sketchy guy gives you on the street.” There’s pretty much never a legal way to acquire them, and artists themselves often object to their existence. Even if it is cool to occasionally see fans coalesce around a bootleg so heavily that it feels canon, there’s so many official releases on my “to get” list that I can’t imagine digging into unofficial ones.
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