Album Composition

[packbat]

It seems to me a pattern: albums begin well, and end weakly. The first track on the Beatles' Abbey Road is "Come Together", a big winner - the last tracks are "The End" and "Her Majesty", two unknowns. The Indigo Girls' eponymous album begins with "Closer to Fine" and ends with "History of Us". Phil Collins' Face Value starts with "In the Air Tonight", ends with "Tomorrow Never Knows". Tracy Chapman starts with "Talkin' Bout a Revolution", ends with "For You".

Joni Mitchell's "Clouds" is a notable exception - the big winner, "Both Sides Now", is the final track - but still. Is it that people buy based on the first N tracks? Do they?

Comments

[chanlemur.livejournal.com]

I find that, radio-friendly or not, things start to pick up again at about track seven.

Not only was the big radio track from Counting Crows' Hard Candy ("Big Yellow Taxi") found at the end of the album, it wasn't even on the track list; it was one of them hidden bonus track dealies. This was presumably updated for later releases.

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Track seven? Well, sometimes, I guess - on Abbey Road it's "Here Comes the Sun", first track on the second side. I'd have to look it over more carefully.

(Y'know, I just couldn't get into Counting Crows' "Big Yellow Taxi". I like a lot of their stuff, but I loved Joni Mitchell's version of her song so much that the cover seemed clumsy in comparison.)

[chanlemur.livejournal.com]

It's unquestionably one of the weaker tracks on the album, IMO. Presumably, this is why it was initially relegated to "bonus track" status. Consumer popularity is a strange and complex force, though.