Leaving off Albums

One of the things I originally loved about Joy Division and New Order was the way they left their singles off the albums.

How much better would New Order's album back catalogue be if they hadn't decided in 1985 to start including singles on albums? A big mistake in my opinion.

Personally I always skip tracks like "Fine Time", "The Perfect Kiss", "Regret" etc when playing the respective albums. It is not that the singles are bad tracks it's just that they are too familiar. Music is a funny thing if you listen to a track too often it nearly always seems to lessen the impact on subsequent listens "the law of diminishing returns". Blue Monday sounded superb in 1983 - but I have almost got to the point now where I can no longer listen to it.

"Power, Corruption and Lies" is a classic album and I'm sure one of the reasons is that it contains NO singles. I'm sure the commercial pressures to include singles were to great for Factory to resist this move - but I think it's a great shame.

I completely agree. the Jam left most of their singles off their albums, and as a result the singles are complete in their own right, whilst the albums are stronger for it as well.

Partialy agree, but I can't see how anyone can skip regret, it's one of the best tracks ever and the best off republic by a mile, the other consideration is that NO weren't as prolific by the time of low life, so needed to release album tracks, which is more likely the way round, rather than writing singles then deciding to put them on the album.

Let's Go should've definately have gone on Lowlife instead of the edit of TPK,tho' can understand why it wasn't as it would've meant there being 2 instrumentals,the single remix of BLT added nothing to an already great song,I never think Fine Time fits on Technique,& just think how shite Republic would've been without Regret.But one of the things about genius,is that it comes with flaws & imperfections

I've been saying for a while that more groups should put all their eggs into their singles and then over time develop back-catologue and album material. If the album is a hit, great. If not, the bands can say "Our album tanked but we still had 4 top 5 singles over the last 2 years".

Great way to stay relevant and maintain artistic license.

I guess it isn't really up to the artists so much though.

Adam Tate wrote: One of the things I originally loved about Joy Division and New Order was the way they left their singles off the albums.

How much better would New Order's album back catalogue be if they hadn't decided in 1985 to start including singles on albums? A big mistake in my opinion.

Personally I always skip tracks like "Fine Time", "The Perfect Kiss", "Regret" etc when playing the respective albums. It is not that the singles are bad tracks it's just that they are too familiar. Music is a funny thing if you listen to a track too often it nearly always seems to lessen the impact on subsequent listens "the law of diminishing returns". Blue Monday sounded superb in 1983 - but I have almost got to the point now where I can no longer listen to it.

"Power, Corruption and Lies" is a classic album and I'm sure one of the reasons is that it contains NO singles. I'm sure the commercial pressures to include singles were to great for Factory to resist this move - but I think it's a great shame.

Total agreement here! And PC&L is, to me, their best effort

Joy Division has so much material that never made it on LP that they were able to make such records as Substance and Still. One of the reasons Unknown Pleasures and Closer are so good is because they ommited trax like transmission, LWTUA, these days, komakino, and the likes. I always wonder how high JD would've gotten.....I think they would have been the greatest band of the 80's for sure, and mentioned along the likes of the Beatles and the Stones within the mainstream of Rock'n Roll elite. Not that I think those two bands are super....I guess Ian knew better than to go down that road...

jed stevens wrote,neworder wernt prolific around low life.

not sure if prolific or lazy is the right term.they had skullcrusher and lets go in the vault underdeveloped(cant be arsed) as it is when it was debuted live april 85 ,prior to l.l release and with brotherhood following just over a year later this was the quickest follow up theve ever done.

agreed that t.p.k mix on l.l. was a comprimise ,still sounds good though

as for singles on albums ,,some songs are so good you have to release them ,dont think this is the route factory took,

its just good that they held off for so long.

the commercial approach of london does grind my gears a bit.

were all the same.

It made the band alot more individual too, leaving tracks off albums. But it could also seem a way to make money too... ("I've got all of New Order's studio albums! Oh look here comes a Greatest Hits, which I have very few of the songs from. I might just go out and buy it seeing that I'll be paying for stuff I haven't heard before")

Jed Stephens wrote: Partialy agree, but I can't see how anyone can skip regret, it's one of the best tracks ever and the best off republic by a mile, the other consideration is that NO weren't as prolific by the time of low life, so needed to release album tracks, which is more likely the way round, rather than writing singles then deciding to put them on the album.

I disagree with weren't as prolific around the time of Low Life,the period of 84 - 86 was just as prolific surely? As well as the two studio albums,tracks included Thieves/Lonesome,Murder,Let's Go,Shellshock,SOTN ( only added to the cd version of Brotherhood ),so IMO is a period nearly matched to the 81 - 83 one with two studio albums & the 10 tracks that were singles & b-sides.The TPK edit was only included because they liked it so much,tho' most peoples opinion on NOOL is that Let's Go should've been on Low Life,even tho' this would have given it 2 instrumentals.I'm for the overall argument tho',I love the ethic of no singles off albums.