A sort of bastard love child of @Hamlet’s post re great album tracks thread.
Obvious one for me is Stardust on the Kinks Village Green Preservation Society
While a brilliant song, the roughly contemperaneous Days would surely have fitted far
better with the album’s theme and vibe
My favourite track on Sparks’ Kimono My House is the last one, Equator. It’s totally at odds with everything before it.
I know I’m not alone in thinking Blue Lines is a fantastic album and Unfinished Sympathy is a fantastic track, but I might be alone in thinking the two don’t sit well together. I think it’s because of the orchestra.
The big Massive Attack shocker is the live version of “Light My Fire” at the end of Protection. Doesn’t help that I can’t stand the song whoever sings it, but here it stinks up the place. “One more tune..” – no thanks mate, I’m fine. Zzzzzipp!, as Smash Hits used to say.
Absolutely this…it’s a ridiculously jarring note tagged on to a great record.
Though conveniently placed to pop eject when it starts.
As per the OP, I think “The Way Young Lovers Do” on Astral Weeks is an unwelcome interloper on one of the finest records ever. Breaks the mood every time.
As does “Bulbs” on Veedon Fleece.
Love them both where they are.
Agree MC , disagree Henry
Love Bulbs, not so happy with WYLD
Love ‘em both especially where they are on the albums
I know what you mean about TWYLD; it’s the album’s only nod to Van Morrison’s early career Pop leanings – almost feels like a bit of a hedge. I do love it though.
The one I’d gladly excise is Beside You. I’m sure no one else will agree, but it’s just a bit too shouty to sit between the two tracks it does.
TWYLD is a wonderful detour as we journey through the mind of the protagonist. It’s the idealised dream of love.
I know it’s heresy to suggest, but the track I skip most often is Cyprus Avenue. It’s a straight 12 bar blues (albeit with a baroque twist) on an album that seems to come from another dimension. Ballerina is its analogue and fits better.
All that being said, on many days this is my favourite album.
The magisterial Paris 1919 by John Cale has long been one of my favourite albums but the track Macbeth sticks out like a sore thumb. The rest of the album has a measured melancholy mood and then slap bang in the middle you get a Glitter Band backbeat and fuzz guitars. I quite like the track in itself but it doesn’t fit in at all.
Completely agree with all aspects of this view – great track, wrong album. Maybe if he’d issued it as a non-album single?
(Edit: mind you, it would have ended up being tacked on at the end of every reissue…)
I’ll channel @Tiggerlion and say Fame would be a much better fit on Station To Station.
Yes, indeed!!
Weird, that, because I never play “Fame” when listening to Young Americans, and have almost convinced myself that it is already on STS because my main Bowie playlist has “Fame” between “TVC15” and “Stay”.
Wow! How did that happen?
😉
It’s just how I roll.
Fits on YA for me, because of the Lennon connection, also illustrated with his (awful) cover of Across the Universe which Lennon also features on.
The Jazz Police on Mr Cohen’s I’m Your Man. Of course, it’s so shockingly bad that it would be out of place on any album ever let alone that one.
Good choice. Definitely not Laughing Len’s greatest hour, amid one of his best albums.
The last track on The Zombies’ masterpiece Odessey and Oracle is Time of the Season, it was a massive hit, but sounds like an American song ending a British album
Some of My Best Friends Are Trains on the Waterboys’ A Pagan place is a great song but sounds like a different band altogether,
It wasn’t on the original album which might explain it’s incongruous feel. Frankly I’ve yet to have an expanded version of an album that i prefer to the original particularly as I prefer to listen on shuffle.
Love that track .
I remember the incredibly strong feelings of excitement, wonder and relief when Dylan’s Time Out Of Mind was released. So many amazing songs, great lyrics, fabulous swampy vibe … but what was ‘Make You Feel My Love’ doing on there! It seemed so out of step with the rest of the record. As the years went by I noticed I was not alone in my reaction. Mind you, 450 or so cover versions would suggest that more than a few people quite like it!
For the first 20 or so years of an intense love for Astral Weeks, I couldn’t stand ‘The Way Young Lovers Do’ and felt it somehow diminished an otherwise remarkable album … the rhythm, crazy vibes and the trumpet, all left me wanting it off the record. Greil Marcus said it was … ‘a poor jazz-flavored cut that is uncomfortably out of place on this record, it’s all one song, very much ‘A Day in the Life.’ Ouch. Then, perhaps with the advent of the CD when it automatically followed ‘Cyprus Avenue’, it began to grow on me. Have now notched up 35 or so years of loving it!
I wonder if Greil has changed his mind? He didn’t like ‘Self Portrait’ much at first either.
@brian-nankervis
Adele’s “Make Me Feel Your Love” as it’s routinely referred to on Simon Cowell-type shiny floor shows
I don’t mind REM’s ‘Shiny Happy People’ so much as a standalone track – the weird sidestep into waltz time in the middle eight is peculiar enough to make it a genuinely intriguing oddity – but we could have left the album’s happy quotient at ‘Near Wild Heaven’ level and ‘Out of Time’ would have been perfect.
But it follows their trend of plonking one annoying sore thumb of a song in amidst the chirpy mandolins and dense Stipery – see ‘Green’ (Stand), and ‘Automatic’ (Sidewinder).
Ignoreland doesn’t really fit on Automatic for the People, I think Sidewinder is a better fit
Both Shiny Happy People and Radio Song are out of place on Out Of Time IMHO. Like the OP, I don’t mind ’em, just not on this album. I have an alternative version of OOT with Fretless and Photograph (with Natalie Merchant) that I find infinitely preferable.
I hate Radio Song with a passion. Possibly the weakest song they recorded in the Bill Berry era. SHP is ok, but hardly a great track for me
You’re right, I just relistened to it. It is beyond awful.
To stick to the OP Superman is a great cover but badly out of place as the last track on Life’s Rich Pageant. The fact it was sung by Mike mills and unlisted adds to the sore thumb feel.
Regardless of the fact that the album is a sprawling, eclectic smorgasbord of his incredible talents, I’ve never really felt that It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night fits into Prince’s Sign O’ The Times. It’s by definition different to the rest, being (a) a live recording and (b) performed by The Revolution, when the other songs were almost all created and realised by P alone. And…it does go on, and on, and on – oooweeooo, ooh-oh indeed.
Yeah but it’s funky as hell and slips perfectly into “Adore”, so it’s okay in my book.
An ancient prejudice is The Knife, on Genesis/Trespass, if a little diluted in remix, making the riffing less lightweight. See also Saturday Night on Desperado, by the Eagles.
Yellow Submarine always irritates me when I play Revolver.
Left up to me, Yellow Submarine backed with Good Day Sunshine would have been a stand alone summer single and Paperback Writer and Rain would have taken their place on Revolver making it (to my tin ears) a more cohesive listen.
Rain was also a massive omission from the recent expanded Red and Blue expanded album reissues
which were completley pointless
Maybe for guys like you – but the red and blue albums were the only Beatles product in millions of households, and the intro for millions of kids.
It was for me – my parents only owned the Red, it was another 3 or 4 years before I heard the Blue
No, not the original red and blue albums, they served a good purpose, especially for me. The remasters from a few years ago that seemingly added random tracks (in the wrong order on vinyl) and show-horned Now and Then on to “1967-70” when it was originally recorded late 70s, embellished in the 90s then completed in 2023
Got it.
Rain (in retrospect, because I wouldn’t have known it at the time) does seem an odd omission from the Red. A bit like the inclusion of Old Brown Show on the Blue.
“Mak shoe!”
And I wrote show-horned above. Damn autocorrect
Cobblers!
Ray Of Light is Madonna’s best album. Mer Girl is an odd conclusion. Switch with B side Has To Be.
“Short Sharp Shocked” by Michelle Shocked is basically a folky singer-songwriter album … with the exception of the version of “Fogtown” which is done in collaboration with the Texas hardcore punk band MDC.
@duco01
I believe she paid for her sin in doing so by going on to become a born again Christian
I absolutely love the song but Lily Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts somehow doesn’t go with the rest of Blood on the Tracks.
Perfect answer (except I always skip it)
It’s my main reason for playing the album! Now, if you had said Buckets of Rain, that I’d go with. Buckets of Piss, more like it!
We had this debate years ago.
I’m in the camp that loves the song and we don’t have a clue what you’re moaning about. It’s a perfect fit for me.
Tanx has its peculiarities. Born To Boogie is a joyful two minute single that does not belong. Any of the B sides from 21st Century Boy or Children Of The Revolution would fit the mood better. I’d go for Free Angel myself as side two track two, even though Jitterbug Love Is one of the best B sides ever.
David Crosby’s “Why” as the last track on Younger Than Yesterday–it had already been a cool b side, but his ego demanded that they re-record it for the album although it was old. I am not including his song “Mind Gardens” as that is not a “great” track.
Why is a very good song, at least they didn’t put a totally throwaway track at the end like in their first 3 albums. Garbage like We’ll Meet Again or Oh Susannah instead of Gene Clark masterpieces like The Day Walk or She Don’t Care About Time
I wish Duran Duran had recorded more songs like The Chauffeur. They wouldn’t have been so successful if they had done so I suppose. Ah well. I guess the reason why it’s the last song on the album is to say “this is what we can really do”. A glimpse inside the kimono.
Not sure if Mott the Hoople’s Wildlife qualifies as a great album, but it has its charms. It showcases Mick Ralphs’ country-rock/Americana tendencies as much as Ian Hunter’s balladeering. The whole sound is consistently mild by Mott standards until…
They end the record with a live “Keep a Knockin'”. It bristles with energy and seems an accurate snapshot of everything that made early Mott an outstanding live attraction. But it also seems incongruous compared to the preceding eight tracks.
Not sure if this qualifies as a great album either but I think A Girl Called Eddie is popular hereabouts. Anyway ‘Golden’, the last track on her eponymous album sounds nothing like the previous ten and feels like it was just tagged on the end. I really like it though, lovely guitar playing by Richard Hawley, I assume.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned ‘Maxwell’ on ‘Abbey Road’ yet. I always skip it. ‘Old Brown Shoe’ would have been a fine replacement.
I’m not sure Pentangle’s ‘Cruel Sister’ is a *great* album but it has a very cohesive, serene Side 1 and a dreadfully dreary version of the sort-of-traditional (mostly concocted by A.L. Lloyd) ‘Jack Orion’ on the whole of Side 2.
Ironically, the ghastly ‘Jack Orion’ contains within it a musically distinct/standalone instrumental section that may well be (on its own) the best thing the Pentangle ever recorded – certainly the most quintessentially ‘Pentanglish’.
Is Maxwell a great track? Not in my book
I love it and never skip it. An album I always listen to all the way through.
I’ve always thought Abbey Road would be better if you replaced Maxwell with Mr Blue Sky.
Funny ⬆️
I always think “The battle of Evermore” is a great left turn in the midst of all the riffage, but no less dynamic or dramatic than the rest of Led Zep 4.
Going to California is the “left turn in the midst of all the riffage”, shirley…
That too!