I’ve recently realised that there are many albums (especially old one) that I rarely, if ever, hear the last track of.
I’ll pick an album (very often one of my favourites) to accompany me with a task and listen until I’ve finished the task. As a consequence I never get to the last track or last few tracks.
Using shuffle mitigates the problem slightly but not completely.
So, my latest solution is to make up some playlists for my favourite albums that play the tracks them in reverse order. Is it just me? Has anyone else employed the system and found the album more enjoyable?
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Kaisfatdad says
Not playing the album to the end means that you are probably always missing some of the best songs.
That is an ingenious solution.
I’m now tempted to create a Spotify playlist consisting of the final song of some of my fave albums…..
I could start with this gem from Grace and Danger perhaps?
Mike_H says
I don’t understand why coming to the end of a task would always necessitate stopping playing the music you put on at the start.
Or, actually, why you might put albums on just to accompany particular tasks.
Gatz says
This used to happen all the time when my walk to the office was 32 minutes each way. Too short to play most albums in one go, too long for the return trip. And almost always want something different for the second leg anyway.
duco01 says
32 mins? You could just about squeeze in “My Aim is True” …
Tiggerlion says
Both Steely Dan’s Everything Must Go and Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. are arguably better played in reverse order. In fact, Lamar, the smart Alec he is, deliberately constructed his album that way.
salwarpe says
As would Revolver, as you could then start with the best track, and finish with Eleanor Rigby, eh Tig?
*wink*
dai says
Taxman
salwarpe says
Not if I have anything to do with it.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
It’s most probably my chronically bad attention span but play me the last couple of tracks on loads & loads of my favourite albums and I’ll bet I won’t be able to pinpoint the album eg who knew there were TEN tracks on Veedon Fleece?
Blue Boy says
Not a duff track on it. It would work brilliantly in reverse, or, frankly, in any order you damn well please.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
But in reverse I’d never get to hear Linden Arden…
PaulVincent says
A few years ago, They Might Be Giants toured Australia, doing a “full album” set in which they played the whole “Flood” album… in reverse track order. They kindly gave away a live recording as a download, and to my ears it really worked well.
Rigid Digit says
I can see that one working live. The set would finish on Birdhouse In Your Soul – a song that seemingly never wants to end
(I’m assuming the Theme From Flood was dropped, unless the intro is the outro)
dai says
Press pause and finish the album later. Sorted
johnw says
Different moods mean I may have played something else in the meantime. I may play a certain sort of music when I’m having a shower than if I’m cooking a pizza. It just occurred to me that I’d listened to the start of the same album 3 times in a row and never actually got to my favourite track(s).
Moose the Mooche says
Work slower. Whatever you’re doing is unlikely to be more important than music.
madfox says
Interesting idea. I can give you an opposite example, an album that would suffer irredeemably from a reverse tracklisting – “Still Crazy After All These Years”. In regulation order, it shapes up as a proper 10/10 classic; but a little way into what they used to call Side Two it begins, IMO, to slipside away. So heard in backwards fashion, I reckon the half-arsed “Silent Eyes” would stop the average listener from venturing any further.
Tiggerlion says
Similarly, the Joshua Tree improves if it’s played in reverse but few would get past track one.
fentonsteve says
Unless you were Kirsty MacColl, who chose the running order based on most to least favourite.
Martin Hairnet says
I never use a shuffle function. I have never used it on a CD player, download or stream. I hate the way Spotify pushes its shuffle function as if it’s the norm. And once selected, you need a map and compass to navigate your way back to order.
I should have been a librarian.
dai says
God, that Spotify thing annoys me too.
retropath2 says
When I was on e music, quite often the downloads, on burning to cd-r, were in reverse order. I haven’t ever seen the need to check. Not bothered.
Black Celebration says
Low would probably work, depending on your mood. The moody instrumentals of side 2 move into the pop songs of side 1.