Manic Street Preachers - Forever Delayed (2002)

It's always a bit strange writing about Greatest Hits albums. They don't have similar kinds of stories as the studio albums do. Of course they may have good personal stories. As a teenager, many of the albums that were in heavy rotation were greatest hits albums. This best of compilation by Manic Street Preachers is somewhat different as I bought it slightly later than Manics were really a thing. The reason I bought this was that I didn't have any individual Manics albums. I always kind of liked the band, but it wasn't, I guess, important enough band to me that I would've bought the albums. Therefore a compilation album seemed like a good way to own some of their best songs. Let's face it, back in 2002 it was still all about owning music. Ever since the arrival of streaming services like Spotify, compilation albums have lost most of their appeal.

Love - Forever Changes (1967)

I haven't been familiar with Love's music for that long. I mean, I've been aware of the band for quite some time, but it took me ages to actually start listening to their music in any kind of systematic manner. One of the incentives for me to pick up their albums was the book 1001 Albums you must hear before you die. I was surprised that an album this good had not really reached my ears before. The album cover was very familiar, but these songs weren't usually included on any hippy-era compilations and thus I wasn't familiar with the songs. When I had listened trough the album once, I knew that it should have a status of a classic album. I bought the album on vinyl some time later here in London. The album was never a commercial success, but it has been later recognised as one of the best albums ever made.