I’ve been listening to Miles Davis’s Aura, released towards the end of his career. It is a suite of tone poems written for a large horn ensemble (and harp) by the Danish composer, Palle Mikkelborg. The pieces are all named after colours. I’m especially fond of Green, a duet with Denmark’s greatest bassist, Niels-Henning Pederson. It is gentle, soothing music on the whole with a bit of John McLaughlin thrown in.
The opening track, called Intro, starts quietly enough, but soon becomes a battle between John and Miles to make the loudest noise. It is nothing like the rest of the album. If you just heard Intro, you would have completely the wrong idea about the mood and style of the whole. It’s a shame because Aura is a very fine album, albeit somewhat long at over an hour. The sensible thing to do is to skip Intro.
Can The Afterword think of any other examples?
Perhaps Fine Time on New Order’s Technique?
For a while there, the policy of issuing singles apart from albums meant they could pursue separate furrows simultaneously, with the singles being (generalization) a bit more dancey and the albums a bit more guitar-y (Guessing here, but possibly a way of keeping the whole Hook/Sumner see saw sort of balanced).
But Fine Time seems to announce the opening of a fizzy-pill-fueled disco whose doors pretty much shut as soon as it’s over. The rest of the album seems mostly of a piece, even allowing for some mighty beats to come.
I’m sure there are better examples – but that’ll get you started..
I was coming here to post Fine Time, but you beat me to it.
Thank you, Sewer. Good start, as you say, to a thread that should easily achieve hamper status by the morning.
😉
Been a long time since I listened to that album, my favourite of theirs, I’ll rectify that soon.
Four words: White Port Lemon Juice.
I’ll have to take your word for it.
You don’t have Burnt Weeny Sandwich? You’re missing a treat.
BONGO FURY!!! BONGO FURY!!!
Patty Griffin’s “Flaming Red” album is a tremendous meaty set of country rock with an emphasis on the rock. Why they opened it with a punk number remains a mystery.
Oof! That is off-putting. Great voice, though.
The rest of the album is brilliant. Much rockier and heavier than her subsequent stuff. This is lovely, about a friend’s passing.
Yes. That’s more like it.
What’s her latest like? Any good?
Good nudge. I don’t know it. Off to Spotty! I have all the others. She’s tremendous.
Beyond Belief is nothing like its parent album, Imperial Bedroom.
Nah, perfect opening to a perfect album that for me surprisingly has not stood up to the test of time. Maybe in the future it will seduce me once more
So, not perfect, then. Unlike This Year’s Model.
Perfect then, not so much now. This Year’s Model has never been perfect just bloody brilliant
and bloody brilliant today.
It sounded like the future in 1978 and still does in 2019.
REM’s Radio Song might qualify in this category…an elegaic funk/rap hybrid was atypical of their sound up to and including the rest of Out Of Time.
I always found Out Of Time somewhat disappointing. Radio Song is one of its better tracks.
Radio Song is the worst thing they ever did (up to New Adventures in HiFi)
Girls & Boys always feels out of place on Parklife.
It “fits”, but I still find myself starting the album at Track 2
The first track on Pat Methenys First Circle sounds like it comes from a totally different album. FC is one of Pats best and most melodic albums but Forward March is really odd like a Tom Waits song scored by Charles Ives. He certainly wasn’t looking to win new fans by kicking it off with that one.