Best known for their Top Ten UK single "Reward" (which is still a staple of 1980s alternative pop compilations), the group originated as a key band in the emerging Liverpool post-punk scene of the late 1970s, the group also launched the career of group frontman Julian Cope as well as that of keyboard player and co-manager David Balfe (later a record producer, A&R man and founder of Food Records).
Rephlex later released a compilation of the group's unreleased early tracks.
(American listeners would be better advised to search out "Smash the System: Singles and More," an impressive double-CD recently released in England by Heavenly/Columbia. The compilation documents the group's decade-long evolution).
"A lot of people appreciated it, but a lot of people just didn't understand it…" A compilation of the group's instrumentals was reissued in 2012, finally making their thrilling futurism available to a new generation.
The album "Symphonic Music of the Rolling Stones," released in 1994, is a compilation of the group's signature songs reinterpreted by the London Symphony Orchestra and the singers Michael Hutchence, formerly of INXS, and Marianne Faithfull.
These include "Live at the BBC," a two-disc compilation of the group's radio performances; "Yellow Submarine Songtrack," a remixed version of the music from the "Yellow Submarine" cartoon film, which Apple also restored and reissued; "1," a single-disc hits compilation; and "Love," a multimedia collaboration with Cirque du Soleil (and a matching recording).
Even more significantly, a compilation of the group's 27 number one hits, called 1, quickly became the bestselling album in 19 countries after its November release and is still near the top of the charts.
Though Plastic Has Memory was featured on Hollywood Goes Wild, a benefit celebrity compilation album, the group never formally released a record and is no longer together.
(Pareles) SLOAN (Monday and Tuesday) This Canadian power pop trio has soldiered along dutifully for 15 years, and as its recent singles compilations suggest, the group's knack with heroic hooks and wry lyrics is undeniable, despite lack of commercial success.
Protected also resembles the Under the Influence series: like a photographic negative of a Best Of compilation, it showcases the group's aesthetic through the listening that informed it.
