Written by Not to sound all “it used to be all fields round here, it was lovely” but if there’s one thing to be mourned about music in the digital age, it’s the loss of the B-side. As a 90s kid, the era of the maxi-single and two-disc single releases, you were constantly bombarded with brilliant B-sides. It’s an artform without equivalent in the modern age – bonus tracks tagged onto the end of a record on streaming platforms doesn’t cut it. Whereas they feel like some sort of shruggy, ‘added content’ after-thought, the best B-sides had something irrepressibly special about them. They were the perfect vehicle for artists in the midst of a purple patch to keep delivering, where some acts even produced work to match their main stream of output. You will never see a world-beating collection of Bonus Tracks in the way that the B-side has left us with a marvel of excellent B-side compilations. Here’s 10 top-grade B-sides albums that are up there with some of these bands’ best records…
Oasis – The Masterplan
The thing we have to thank for an Oasis B-side collection so majestic that it’s their third, possibly even second, best record is Noel Gallagher’s obvious impatience. The songs were just pouring out of him as Oasis broke through in the mid-90s and he just couldn’t bear to sit on them, it was imperative to him that they were released into the wild as soon as possible. That’s why you’ve got Oasis classics such as Acquiesce and The Masterplan, career-defining songs for any other band, as B-sides. Such is the all-encompassing cultural impact of Oasis’ music that songs that seemed sweet, throwaway acoustic ditties at the time such as Talk Tonight and Half The World Away are now worshipped just as much as their big hits. Also features their raucous version of The Beatles’ I Am The Walrus for anyone miffed they didn’t play it at this summer’s shows.
Smashing Pumpkins – Pisces Iscariot
Noel Gallagher might well have regretted at sticking a load of would-be singles as B-sides when it came to writing Oasis’ below-par third album Be Here Now, but no such issues for Smashing Pumpkins’ leader Billy Corgan. He followed up their imperious B-side and outtakes album Pisces Iscariot with the monstrously successful double-album Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness. You could say the dynamic gear changes of that record, its swings between snarling hard-rock riffage and delicate acoustic numbers, had its blueprint in this compilation. The tone is set in the way fragile, stripped-down opener Soothe immediately dives head-first into the urgent rocker Frail And Bedazzled. There are some Pumpkins worldies on the record – and there forlorn take on Fleetwood Mac’s Landslide is one of the best covers ever.
R.E.M. – Dead Letter Office
R.E.M.’s 80s was a continuous upward curve which they began as an arty college-rock combo and ended as one of the biggest bands on the planet. Dead Letter Office, released in 1987, pulls from songs released in the midst of the transformation. Everything to be loved about R.E.M. is here: jangly riffs, lithe rhythmic grooves, sweetly captivating melodies, lyrics that don’t make any sense. A giddy cover of Aerosmith’s Toys In The Attic only adds to the allure.
The Smiths – Hatful Of Hollow
Not all masterpieces are the result of some refined artistic vision. Hatful Of Hollow was cobbled together as a stop-gap whilst the Manchester indie four-piece made their second record Meat Is Murder and has become one of, if not the, The Smiths’ most definitive works. Collating B-sides with radio sessions and standalone singles, it is the sound of a band making hay whilst they are still talking to each other. How Soon Is Now?, William, It Was Really Nothing, Hand In Glove… this is incredible stuff.
Manic Street Preachers – Lipstick Traces
Because of the way they pinballed through different sounds over their first four records, any Manics compilation makes for a unique listening experience, each song pulling the set in a different direction. But for some reason, the songs on their B-sides comp Lipstick Traces (A Secret History Of Manic Street Preachers) sit together more harmoniously than any of their Best Of or singles packages. Maybe that’s because sometimes their B-sides felt like a bridge to their next era, like the way Comfort Comes sets up the tightly-wound post-punk of The Holy Bible or Dead Trees And Traffic Islands explores the pastoral, melancholic shades they would sink into on 1998’s This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours.
Pearl Jam – Lost Dogs
Pearl Jam cleared out the shelves with Lost Dogs, a 2003 double-disc compilation pulling together B-sides and studio outtakes from the grunge titans. Eddie Vedder & co. had already long established that they were willing to go off the beaten track and this is a rich insight into just how much they had expanded and experimented with their sound whilst still coming up with the goods. Take Down, originally to be found as the flipside on the I Am Mine single and one of the catchiest, radio-friendly things they’ve ever done, or the soaring Alone – it’s a travesty it never found its way onto Ten or Vs..
The Cure – Join The Dots: B-Sides & Rarities
This masterful four-disc release collects Cure B-sides alongside rarities from their beginning in 1978 through to 2001. They were many different bands during that period, as this set proves – from the jerky, on-edge punk of 10:15 Saturday Night to the icy, labyrinthine grooves of Another Journey By Train to the wistful, mid-tempo pop of Signal Noise. The best cut isn’t a B-side, though – it’s their timeless goth epic Burn, made for The Crow.
Deftones – B-Sides & Rarities
Deftones‘ inimitable twist on nu-metal and alt-rock is illuminated on this 2005 release. The originals keep up the quality of the four records they’d released at that point, but it’s in the covers where it gets really interesting, snarling takes on Cocteau Twins’ Wax And Wane, Duran Duran’s The Chaffeur and The Smiths’ Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want shedding light on some of the influential sounds going into a Deftones stew.
Nirvana – Incesticide
As Nevermind blew up big, Sub Pop supremo Jonathan Poneman contacted Nirvana’s new label Geffen to inform them they had a batch of unreleased recordings available for purchase. A six-figure deal later, Incesticide was released, combining those cuts with a superlative run of flipsides. Dive is the sort of raw, furious tune they’d hone in on for In Utero and Stain shows they were just as powerful in lo-fi mode.
Suede – Sci-Fi Lullabies
Given the turmoil of Suede’s first few years – original guitarist Bernard Butler departed in acrimony during the making of their second record Dog Man Star, their output remained abundant and never less than brilliant. Much like The Masterplan, this was better than the records that came after it, a mix of kohl-eyed rock’n’roll and panoramic indie epics.
