Marking 25 years into singer songwriter M. Ward's career, For Beginners attempts to showcase his consistently excellent career-spanning catalog from a greatest hits compilation. Capping at fourteen songs that exclusively span the early and middle records of his career, it only shows half the picture of how great of an artist M. Ward is. There also looms a large question: why does this exist in 2024 and what is even the point?
Here's the thing: can you make a case for a greatest hits album in the year 2024? I'm not so confident on what the point of a greatest hits compilation would be in today's world. With streaming being the largest type of music consumption over the past several years (being almost a decade, really), I feel like the listener's interest in the traditional way of being introduced to an artist's greatest hits has shifted drastically, if not outright nonexistent. Traditionally, a greatest hits compilation would be an easy, simple way for the consumer to spark interest in an artist's music and become familiar with the artist's music and hopefully it would fuel the fire by convincing the listener to dive into the artist's entire catalog. This has drastically shifted not only nowadays, but even back when digital downloads were massive; people would just cherry pick the hits they like, regardless what album they are packaged in. Even with algorithmically curated playlists modified to include a "greatest hits" of sorts via your music streaming platform of choice, that has essentially replaced the greatest hits compilation. With the shortening attention span of most listeners who would rather simply listen to algorithmically generated playlists that has completely destroy humanized music discovery... do listeners even care about getting into an artist's catalog let alone listen to or appreciate albums as an art form in general?
I, like possibly some of you who are reading this, may be in the minority here. I still strap onto human-curated recommendations from more traditional music sources like music websites or by word of mouth. I tend to completely ignore the sterilized music algorithm trying to recommend me things that may peak my interest, but ultimately it will sound similarly like many artists I already love, hence the true lack of discovering something different and unique that would wholesomely surprise me. You can call me someone who is irritant and annoyed of the current ways people are consuming and discovering music or the lack thereof. You can call me an old fart who isn't going along with the times or someone who "just doesn't get it." You could call me a doomist who is pessimistic of the continuing artificial destruction of music and even art itself. You can call me a lot of things. I can take it. This is a conversation topic that I can delve in at nauseum in an essay (which I should probably do sometime) but I definitely wanted to bring these things up when we're talking about a traditional greatest hits collection that you could listen to on vinyl, on CD, or even stream on Apple Music, which is my preferred streaming service of choice (fight me).
What the point of a greatest hits collection these days truly is beyond me but if I had to guess, it is possibly to act as a statement piece, a celebratory reminder of an artist who has had a successful career, catalog, or legacy. M. Ward, the artist in question who I'm finally naming within this album "review," has recently released one for the very first time. With twelve solo studio albums and twenty five years of being in the music business, it makes sense to mark a time of celebration. Ward is one of my favorite singer songwriters and guitar players of the 21st century, who is constantly an artist who is slept on when talking about the indie folk revival of the 2000's. His intimate, intricate guitar playing and often warmly hushed vocals do wrap the listener up in a cozy sonic blanket while his lyricism and guitar playing evokes as an ode to some of the greats in folk, blues, rock, and pop music. Not only are his solo contributions highly notable but his involvement with Zooey Deschanel as the "Him" in She & Him may as well be his most well known attribute of his career. As most fans know, his solo material, especially from his early output, is ultimately his best and most notable work.
That's what For Beginners: The Best of M. Ward attempts to showcase. Capping at fourteen songs that exclusively span the early and middle records of his career, it only shows half the picture of how great of an artist M. Ward is. By not including much of the better moments from his earliest catalog (nothing from his debut Duet for Guitars #2 and his second album End of Amnesia, only one song from Transistor Radio, and no "To Go Home," hello?!?!?!) and no sign of any material past 2009's Hold Time, we're missing nearly the entire second half of his career along with his earliest output. Sure, the bulk of For Beginners include songs from his two most critically and commercially successful albums, 2003's Transfiguration of Vincent and 2006's Post-War, but there are plenty of incredible songs from his first two albums and his recent six(!) albums that would not only help showcase the many memorable moments that are missing here, but his progression and shift throughout his career. Songs like the intensely beautiful "Slow Driving Man" from 2016's excellent More Rain, the dreamy ballad "Heaven's Nail and Hammer" from 2020's Migration Stories, the gorgeous "The First Time I Ran Away" from 2012's A Wasteland Companion, or even his recent duet with First Aid Kit "Too Young to Die" on his newest album Supernatural Thing released last year are all missing and are easily some of the best in his catalog. And that's just scratching the surface. Barely scratching I might add. I didn't even mention any of the incredible moments from his electrifying What a Wonderful Industry back in 2018 nor any moments from his first two excellent records, Duet for Guitars #2 or End of Amnesia. Surprisingly, there is a newly unreleased Godley & Creme cover of "Cry" that features the Folk Bitch Trio that's included. It's a pretty acoustic cover that's nice and thankfully adds at least one recent song to the track listing, but is ultimately unnecessary when we're talking about "greatest hits."
That's really the largest issue with this greatest hits compilation, which is the lack of inclusion that would smartly span the many quality songs through his entire career, missing many songs and albums that I would argue are among his best. Yes, Post-War is (and possibly always will be) his best album in his entire career, but I would rather listen to it in its entirety than hear four or five moments from it sprinkled throughout this sparse collection of hits that are so heavy on Ward's earlier output, it's broken the scale entirely. Why listen to For Beginners when you can listen to a fan-curated playlist, or even the algorithmically generated M. Ward Essentials playlist on Apple Music, which has at least some songs from the second half of his career? And the more important looming question: why does this exist in 2024 and what is even the point? Just go and listen to this playlist I've personally curated below or go listen to any of his many consistently great albums. You'll get a heck of a lot out of these options more than this bare bones and frankly inessential, pointless compilation that really doesn't do M. Ward's career justice.
My Rating: 5 / 10
A Much More Impactful M. Ward Playlist For Beginners:
"For Beginners" (From Hold Time)
"Color of Water" (From End of Amnesia)
"To Go Home" (From Post-War)
"Vincent O'Brien" (From Transfiguration of Vincent)
"Me and My Shadow" (From A Wasteland Companion)
"Big Boat" (From Transistor Radio)
"Too Young to Die" (From Supernatural Thing)
"Slow Driving Man" (From More Rain)
"Outta My Head" (From Transfiguration of Vincent)
"The First Time I Ran Away" (From A Wasteland Companion)
"Half Moon" (From End of Amnesia)
"Let's Dance" (From Transfiguration of Vincent)
"Rave On" (From Hold Time)
"Miracle Man" (From What a Wonderful Industry)
"Chinese Translation (From Post-War)
"Time Won't Wait" (From More Rain)
"Hold Time" (From Hold Time)
"Shark" (From What a Wonderful Industry)
"Heaven's Nail and Hammer" (From Migration Stories)
"Bad Dreams" (From End of Amnesia)
"Oh Lonesome Me" (From Hold Time)
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