I listened to my ‘The Rush Remasters’ copy of 2112 this week, and blow me down if the whole of side 1 – the 2112 side – hasn’t been remastered as one 20-minute track. Now when I bought the vinyl back in the day there were 7 distinct tracks on side one with proper gaps in between. Why on earth would they now say that the listener must experience our progerpiece as one magnum opus? Plays havoc with any playlisting I might want to do that might, for example, use The Temples of Syrinx and not the rest. The only other album I have ever come across that does this is a Laurent Garnier Mixmag Live CD that in the height of ‘DJs as artists’ nonsense made his mix one 79 minute track. Thanks Laurent – we love your ‘journey’ but you know if say you want to pick up where you left off half-way through that’s really irritating.
Ironic really from the then proponents of libertarianism that they impose a strict listening order on their own album.
So any other examples of ruthless enforcement of listening order via this practice?
Freedom to Listen? Sort it out Geddy
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Prince – Lovesexy. On vinyl you got two sides, on CD it’s one long track.
You could try Audacity. It’s a free music editing program. You could load up a rip and split away as you see fit. But yes, that must be somewhat annoying.
@fentonsteve quick look on google play reveals that yes Lovesexy is the same in digital form – one long track. However it is only 0.99 which seems fair. 2112 is also one track, but Rush want 7.99. Any idea why Prince wanted to do this?
I believe Prince wanted listeners to sit through the whole (vaguely concept) album and not just cherry-pick Alphabet St.
When I ripped my CD I ran it through Audacity and created tracks, as MCEsher suggests above.
You can also separate the tracks in iTunes, of course.
The bugger is the opposite, whereby digital versions of Happy Trails/Quicksilver Messenger Service breaks side one into its “separate” tracks, ruining the flow.