Exorcising Ghosts - Japan

This may come as a surprise, but I wasn't always the knowledgeable and upstanding person that you see before you. And when you have recovered from that shock I'll explain;

From time to time, and particularly at Christmas, I would receive record tokens as gifts and these were one of the most cherished items that I could receive. Cherished because it meant that I could visit the record shop and peruse the racks and racks of vinyl, getting lost in the dazzling colours, typefaces, graphics and photography of the sleeve designs. But as ever there were choices to be made; a finite number of tokens meant a finite number of records. How on earth was one expected to choose? There was always going to be at least one essential purchase that was going to have to be left on the shelf. Anyway on one particular post Christmas trip I went into town and started to whittle down the lucky records that would be coming home with me. And there it was. Probably the most perfect 7" sleeve I had ever seen; 'Ghosts' by Japan. I'd heard it on the radio a few times and I was captivated and excited in equal measure by the haunting vocal and minimalist synth. It was snatched and put in the basket with the other lucky vinyl discs.

'Ghosts' would go on to be given increasingly frequent spins on my orange record player. Spooky, moody and utterly original. But, as far as Japan were concerned, that was as far as my knowledge went. I'd heard a few other tracks on the radio but had not yet made a purchase.

Many years later my knowledge was no greater and then I came across a copy of this CD in a second hand record shop. I picked it up and noted the title, turned it over and scanned the track listing. "Ahh this must be the album that 'Ghosts' came from", I noted to myself. So the album was bought. I was immediately impressed with the number of tracks I had heard before. "Wow this is a cracking album", I mused. And so for the next fifteen years I happily assumed that 'Exorcising Ghosts' was a proper album with track after track of top, albeit miserable, pop synth tunes. How should I know any different?

So it came as a real surprise a few months ago, when I was flicking through Wikipedia, to learn that it is in fact a compilation album. Idiot. Me not you. With that knowledge in mind, the clues seem rather obvious; the fact that I knew a lot of the songs, the rather rubbish pun as a title and the quality of the songs. But I blame the band - most others have the decency to name their greatest hits 'Greatest Hits'. Unambiguous, clear and economic. I'd even settle for 'The Best Of' as that also allows in non-hit songs. But at least I now know. My ignorance in this department is resolved.....but I started to wonder. How many other albums in my collection are greatest hits? What if this was not a one off occurrence. Were there other embarrassments lying in wait to catch my unawares. Great now I have to add paranoia to my list..........