![]() These are the tracks that introduce the listener to the artist’s world and compel you to come back again. With that in mind, the first and last songs of every album-the intro and outro songs, as I’m going to call them-hold special importance. ![]() Even for something as homogeneous-sounding as the Sex Pistols‘ Never Mind the Bollocks showed the good sense to match the thunderous roar of “Bodies” with the nearly melodic “No Feelings” and then go on ahead to the chugging “Liar” (on the 12-track version of the record, at least). But even for a genre like punk, where tempo and volume are likely on the right side of the bell curve, any good album shows a good sense of dynamics, taking care not to make songs appear one after the other if they are too similar in structure, tone or style. Is the first half all overpowering loudness? How about the second half? All soothing slow jams? I’m guessing the answer is no. After all, just like any structure, if a couple pieces are out of place, the whole thing could collapse.Īnd I’m not just talking about story-heavy concept albums like Pink Floyd’s The Wall, where songs are presented as a deliberate narrative. Artists have certain ideas they want to express to their audience with their albums, and listening to songs out of order corrupts the record’s purpose and the artist’s intent. These same principles apply to the album. But at the same time, it’s not something that calls attention to itself, since each part works together organically to make this seamless whole. Directors and writers order their scenes and chapters in a very specific way to illuminate narrative and thematic content, and in any good film or piece of literature, each section builds off the others so that there’s a satisfying conclusion. Think of an album like a movie or a book. The song sequence is one of the most important facets of record-making, and it’s one that’s usually taken for granted. Radiohead, for example, notoriously bickered about running orders during the final stretch of the recording sessions for Kid A and Amnesiac, nearly tearing them asunder. Songs rarely play in a randomly determined order artists and bandmates often agonize over the playlist for weeks or months. It’s no secret that albums have structures.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |