On the ending being weak... I haven't given it as much thought, but I suspect the problem is related to the way a lot of CDs these days (and a few tapes, as I recall) end in a 'bonus track', whether it's an extra song or a remixed one or some little snippet of goofing around. It's the sort of thing that gets put on there because the band wants it, and not necessarily because anyone else thinks it's good.
So you have a song the musician loves, wants to keep, isn't so great. They only do so many songs; it's a rough fight to keep it off entirely. Or maybe you need it to pad out the length anyway, even if you're not so enamored of it. Where's the best place to put it, from a marketing standpoint? In the place least listened to: the very end of the album. A lot of people listen to albums straight through, in order, even in this day and age. It stands to reason they'll start from the beginning a lot more often than they'll listen all the way to the end.
Which makes for a weak overall feeling if you want a nice cohesive album, but...most people aren't doing The Wall, they're doing three great songs, four good songs, and two or three more they came up with and tossed on there to make it look like a full album. Coherence and overall composition get sacrificed for "We need more than seven songs or people won't buy this."
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
So you have a song the musician loves, wants to keep, isn't so great. They only do so many songs; it's a rough fight to keep it off entirely. Or maybe you need it to pad out the length anyway, even if you're not so enamored of it. Where's the best place to put it, from a marketing standpoint? In the place least listened to: the very end of the album. A lot of people listen to albums straight through, in order, even in this day and age. It stands to reason they'll start from the beginning a lot more often than they'll listen all the way to the end.
Which makes for a weak overall feeling if you want a nice cohesive album, but...most people aren't doing The Wall, they're doing three great songs, four good songs, and two or three more they came up with and tossed on there to make it look like a full album. Coherence and overall composition get sacrificed for "We need more than seven songs or people won't buy this."