The Best of Babybird - how good in terms of a best of?

[Matt KB]

Been meaning to get a Babybird album for a while and saw the Best Of.... in the shops today. You're Gorgeous is on it obviously (probably the song I like least tbh) but You'll Be Mine is also there.

I wondered, to the fans - how good is this in terms of a Best Of? Any glaring omissions etc?

Thanks.

[friedeggbutty]

Don't know much about Babybird - I've got the album with You're Gorgeous on it and that's it.

There's only one review of the Best Of on Amazon UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001AV512/ref=sr_aps_music_1_1/026-2023128-9121215
but it does comment on the choice of tracks. And not with praise. Worth a look if you haven't already.

[Vicster]

Hmmm.

As mentioned, the Best Of you're looking at is basically Bugged, with a few extra tracks thrown in. Bugged kicks ass, but to be honest, you might as well just buy Bugged and be done with if you're going to buy that.

My personal recommendations - depending on how much money you have to spend:
All Five Lo-Fi Albums Plus The Black Album In A Nice Box Set (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00006LEOA/ref=pd_sim_pm_dp_1/026-7356648-9246048) for the rather wonderful price of £25.
The lo-fi albums are great, but they can take getting used to: my other half's comments on first hearing 'I Was Born A Man' (I had one of the original CDs!!) was 'oh, you've bought a CD by The Fall'. Quite different from the 'hit' releases, but theres some 'original' versions of songs like 'Cornershop' that you might already know.

A Best Of Lo-Fi Albums 2 CD Set (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000000GGF/qid=1077671709/sr=1-9/ref=sr_1_11_9/026-7356648-9246048) for a decent £10.
This is an American import, and its got some of the best tracks from across the first four lo-fi albums (doesn't include Dying Happy, IIRC). A cheaper sampler, but annoying if you get hooked and then go buy the box set.

After that, I'd probably either recommend the 'non-lo-fi' albums in this order (Bugged, Ugly Beautiful, Theres Something Going On, Almost Cured Of Sadness) or the lo-fi albums in this order (Bad Shave, I Was Born A Man, Fatherhood, Dying Happy, The Happiest Man Alive). Depends on whether you like the lo-fi stuff or not.

Albums to avoid: Stephen Jones: 1985-2000 pretty much sucks. There is a similar release, 'Plastic Tablets' that was very limited (I don't have that one, bah).

Websites should you want more information: very thin on the ground. You're pretty much only left with www.babybird.co.uk which sucks and blows, IMHO. Updated very rarely, with a discussion board that has about ten regulars, all of whom seem to spend a lot of their time bitching. Of course, I'm biased - I used to run Feathers which was (for a long time) the only 'real' Babybird site to the extent I'd get Stephen and Echo ringing me up and telling me what to put on the site....but of course, that kind of thing put me off, and there was no new releases for a very long time....pah, I digress.

Anyway, the information on www.babybird.co.uk is wrong more often than its right (the chronology is wrong to begin with), so take it with a pinch of salt :)

[TheoGB]

So how come this 'Feathers' site of yours still isn't out there somewhere? Even if it stopped being updated, it sounds like the content would have been useful? Can't you stick it in a subdirectory of one of your sites somewhere? :confused:

[Vicster]

Originally posted by TheoGB
So how come this 'Feathers' site of yours still isn't out there somewhere? Even if it stopped being updated, it sounds like the content would have been useful? Can't you stick it in a subdirectory of one of your sites somewhere? :confused:
I do think that myself sometimes!
Its languishing on not the last pc I had, but the one before it.
And I don't actually have a website - just some space that came with my NTL account.

Its funny, listening to 'Bugged' last night in the car reminded me just how good some of ol' Jones' stuff when he put his mind to it. Maybe I should actually (semi lyric quote) 'kick myself into touch' and put it back up again. Ho hum.

[EDIT]
Oooh - Matt, you're in luck.
www.bad-pages.dk is a very good fan site in Denmark, with MP3's and videos you can try on, so you can get a feel for what era Babybird / Baby Bird / Stephen Jones you like :)

[TheoGB]

You're never too old to buy www.vicster.org :D

(Well .com and .net have already gone, it seems!)

[Matt KB]

Wow thanks Vic (and others) - a wealth of info there to be looking into :)