if there's a better compiler than Bob Stanley out there, I'd sure like to know...

As a once-prolific buyer of physical-format music, I find that compilations are mainly what I look for these days, in the record store. (And lavishly-packaged box sets/reissues too, of course.) If I want to hear the latest album by, whoever, I can probably find it on Spotify, but the tracks on the more obscure comps (esp. the Stanley/Wiggs ones like English Weather, Tea & Symphony, Songs for Mario's Cafe, etc.), I'd be hard-pressed to find them all on any streaming service.

Yeah, I think it's possible to over-think this. They're nice compilations - had the LA one on at the weekend, it's a good end-to-end listen with some unfamiliar stuff (to me) in there alongside the familiar classics - clearly not meant to be a Soul Jazz / Light In The Attic-style archival deep dive. The design's nice, and Stanley's essay inside ties it all together very pleasantly.

Sainsburys clearly shifts enough vinyl for this to be worthwhile for them - but given that I suspect they're mainly selling either Mumsnet fare like Rag & Bone Man and Adele or expensive reissues of very very overexposed classics, this is a surprising toe in slightly more adventurous waters.

i like the cover designs.
very library styled.

I guess the target market is people who have just got their first turntable and are in an enthusiastic early buying phase + older people who have just bought a turntable again after keeping all their vinyl in the loft for a decade. They'll sell enough to people who are doing the weekly shop and just buy them on the spur of the moment, I guess.

> yeah these are nice comps but i'm also wondering how 'useful' they are and who would want them, especially in the age of Spotify recommended playlists etc

Merry Christmas, i got you a spotify playlist...

Yeah, I don’t really buy the argument that the comp is redundant in the age of the Spotify playlist, given that Spotify also has *whole albums* too and no one (on this thread at least) is saying these are obsolete too.

Don’t want to overstate the case for these Sainsbury’s albums, but a physical compilation can be a lovely thing.

you guys have GOT TO BE KIDDING ME about 15 year olds not having access to turntables?

http://theday.co.uk/arts/teenagers-are-leading-the-vinyl-revival
https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/01/why-does-my-teenage-daughter-want-a-22-vinyl-record/
https://www.seeker.com/are-teenagers-keeping-vinyl-records-alive-1862002918.html
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/apr/21/crosley-generation-record-player-has-the-kids-spinning
http://www.nme.com/news/music/various-artists-598-1200543
http://www.nme.com/news/music/various-artists-496-1198503

That somehow ties into my slightly snarky theory that a lot of teenagers will go crazy for vinyl until they actually have to move it all into/away from college.

So many Spotify playlists, even useful ones, are 250-tracks long with entire albums shunted in there and no thought to flow or confluence or anything else. Curation matters.

Spotify also has *whole albums* too and no one (on this thread at least) is saying these are obsolete too

*bursts in sweating*

For those looking for more Stanley curation goodness, I'm listening to his Soho Radio show on mixcloud, and it's pretty fucking solid (though the discrepancies in volume between the songs and his voice can annoy).

http://acerecords.co.uk/when-the-day-is-done-the-orchestrations-of-robert-kirby

New Robert Kirby comp compiled by Stanley.

Must have!

Love that Keith Christmas track. Had no idea Kirby was involved.

Comp looks great.

New Bob and Pete comp soon

A new project from @rocking_bob & @petewiggs due in May. More details shortly 👇 pic.twitter.com/7l7bAeIwXx

— Ace Records (@AceRecordsLtd) March 20, 2018

Ooooh!

wow at that sleeve.

Fantastic sleeve and title, yeah -- we have details:

http://acerecords.co.uk/bob-stanley-pete-wiggs-present-paris-in-the-spring

The events of May '68 are seen as a turning point in France's social history - pictures of the barricades are still potent images. Lines were drawn politically, culturally, socially, and pop music was not exempt.

“Paris In The Spring” is a collection of the new music, put together by Saint Etienne's Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs, that emerged from France between 1968 and the mid-seventies, an extraordinary blend of several previously independent strains – French chanson and yé -yé, American jazz and funk, British chamber pop - shot through with the era's underlying mixture of optimism, uncertainty and darkness. This is the first collection of its kind, released on the 50th anniversary of the Paris uprising.

Serge Gainsbourg – a jazz pianist with a chanson past and a pop present – was in a position to play a key role in soundtracking France in flux over the next five years. His “Histoire de Melody Nelson”, with its heavily atmospheric arrangements by Jean-Claude Vannier, was the acme of this new, unsettling French sound. “Paris In The Spring” includes other equally dazzling Vannier arrangements (for Léonie) and Gainsbourg compositions (for Jane Birkin and Mireille Darc).

Prior to 1968, sixties French pop had been dominated by yé -yé, the country's unique brand of upbeat pop, a world of primary colours, mini-jupes and discotheques (a French invention, after all). Its stars either faded fast after May '68 or adapted to the new era: Jacques Dutronc (‘Le Métaphore’) and France Gall (‘Chanson Pour Que Tu M'aimes un Peu’) discovered a moody side that they had previously kept hidden, and Françoise Hardy released the Brazilian-influenced, after-hours classic “La Question”, from which we have picked ‘Viens’.

New bands like Triangle emerged, influenced by Soft Machine and Gong who became regulars on the Paris club scene. French library music from Janko Nilovic and film soundtracks (François De Roubaix, Karl-Heinz Schäfer) reflected the era's edginess. All are represented on “Paris In The Spring”, making it a continental cousin to Stanley and Wiggs's 2017 Ace compilation “English Weather”.

01 La Victime (Part 1) - Karl Heinz Schäfer
02 Hélicoptère - Mireille Darc
03 Les Aventures Extraordinaires D'Un Billet De Banque - Bernard Lavilliers
04 Roses And Revolvers - Janko Nilovic
05 L'Élu - Ilous & Decuyper
06 La Métaphore - Jacques Dutronc
07 Dommage Que Tu Sois Mort - Brigitte Fontaine
08 Les Gardes Volent Au Secours Du Roi (Alternate version) - Jean-Claude Vannier
09 Looking For You - Nino Ferrer
10 Chanson D'Un Jour D'Hiver - Cortex
11 Viens - Françoise Hardy
12 Couleurs - Léonie
13 Leslie Simone - William Sheller
14 Litanies - Triangle
15 Baleines - François De Roubaix
16 Encore Lui - Jane Birkin
17 Evelyne - Serge Gainsbourg
18 Le Bal Des Laze - Michel Polnareff
19 Lilith - Léonie
20 Ystor - Ys
21 Chanson Pour Que Tu M'Aimes Un Peu - France Gall
22 La Victime (Part 2) - Karl Heinz Schäfer
23 La Chanson D'Hélène - Romy Schneider & Michel Piccoli

great cover, will buy

Awesone! I'd been picking up stray moments of this kinda stuff - that Nino Ferrer album that got spotlit in Aquarium Drunkyard, Léo Ferré's 1970 record w/ a rock group - and really welcome a curation of it. Roubaix is an all-time fave, too.

WANT

English Weather was really outstanding - it was probably my most played record of last year - so hopes are high.

There isn't a single song on English Weather that is any less than wonderful.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/De7xjRYWkAAoAk8.jpg

New Bob 80s synth comp. He couldn't clear Kraftwerk or Depeche he says on Twitter

Track list:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/De6hOOrXkAEiDeI.jpg

All gold.

There's also a Shadows / Hank Marvin / Welch & Farrar comp if that's more your bag.

Good to see some 80's deep cuts there. And Phil Lynott? Whynott!

He's good when he's exploring genres most people don't know about - showcasing the best stuff that's often never been reissued or available on CD or whatever. But I don't get why he's compiling for Sainsburys like this which are largely tracks that everyone knows in genres that have been comped to death.

I kinda agree but otoh people under 30 do buy vinyl and many would probably also be into this sort of primer (somehow only heard 'Videotheque' for the first time last year myself)

*puts now that's what i call music 1 on shuffle*

No way anyone under 30 knows Lawn Chairs or Peter Schilling or Bill Nelson or B Movie or some forgotten China Crisis and Buggles singles. Comped to death, really?

I guarantee a huge % of under 30s know these, at least in Europe. I know lots of under 30s who know this stuff inside out and back to front; a 24 year old friend of mine is an uber Bill Nelson fan. Also, Peter Schilling had a massive revival last year.

Anyhow, Bob is a compilation compling god but come on, this one must have taken 15 mins max. I hope Sainsbury's paid him handsomely.

Like he needs the money.

I'll Stan up for the Hank one, mainly because I'd asked him yonks ago about "Other Shadows tracks that are as great as" Stingray", (album tracks tend towards MOR safety) and he'd suggested some. Trouble is, not that they are rare as in pricey, but rare as in hard-to-find, there's not that many of those singles out there.

So, yeah I'm quite pleased about that one.

Gave Paris In The Spring a cursory listen - CD player's in the repair shop so I succumbed and bought the vinyl. A lot of Gainsbourg-adjacent stuff, as was to be expected, I get to feel smug about having played stuff off of Les Gants Blancs Du Diable on my radio show before I knew Stanley's championing it - he's got three tracks from it on here!

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jul/23/now-pop-compilation-100-that-s-what-i-call-music

Stanley's alternative 100th NOW compilation (with Spotify playlist)

Man, Stanley and Wiggs are on a roll with their late 60s themed comps:

https://acerecords.co.uk/bob-stanley-pete-wiggs-present-state-of-the-union-the-american-dream-in-crisis

has "4th of july" ever appeared anywhere else since the "good vibrations" box set? that song really is underheard

First time the Beach Boys' Fourth Of July has been on vinyl. Really happy with this one - hats off to @liz_buckley for making light of some very tricky licensing work! https://t.co/Iecrh6CUH9

— bob stanley (@rocking_bob) September 10, 2018

Handy reminder

FINALLY!! Out today. “Bob Stanley & Pete Wiggs Present: State of the Union - The American Dream In Crisis”, available on CD and double vinyl. https://t.co/A3lMVyHPQa pic.twitter.com/gd6Luw9Q8W

— Liz Buckley (@liz_buckley) October 26, 2018

This is a fantastic compilation. Is there a sadder song than 'The Train' by Sinatra?

New interview with him via Pete Paphides on the Ace Records podcast, and the first question out of the gate is about putting together comps, so.

https://soundcloud.com/ace-records-ltd/the-ace-records-podcast-6-bob-stanley

This was posted about 10 years ago but I think it's complete at this point:
http://www.saintetiennedisco.com/compileb.html

I really need to check out most of these.

Yeah, got most of them. Happily so.

i've got all of those Saint Etienne compilations except for the London Winter one. Need to get Paris in the Spring and the new one. Plus there are so many others, including a bunch released via Croydon Municipal that aren't specifically Stanley-curated but bear his influence.

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/label/croydon-municipal/

New one! Just in time for Brexit innit
https://acerecords.co.uk/three-day-week-when-the-lights-went-out-1972-1975

My copy arrived today! Have only listened to the first part so far, but it's ace.

the state of the union comp is great. looking forward to this one.

Yeah, I started off lukewarm on the concept of that one - songs about social strife from the 60's, yawn - the fact that it's mostly about how the squares and the olds reacted to that upheaval really makes it something special. That spooky Tokens track has been in my head for days.

Three Day Week is excellent and strongly aligned to my interests. I fear it may have niche appeal, but hope I'm proven wrong.