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Bonus Tracks Ruin Albums.

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by team_cooper
It's true.
When you have a good well rounded album that sounds that fits well there tends to be a classic 'closer'.
Yet the record companies try throwing "eXtra" tracks on the end, which tend to be remix's or live versions of songs, that just ruin the flow of the album.
Yeah, at first you won't care as it's just extra songs and you may even buy the album for those songs-but you will get to the point where you want to listen to the album as a whole, not with the cling-ons at the end.
Notable reference- Turn on the bright lights. Pointless 1minutes interlude that fades in and out after Lief Erikson that devalues it. Suppose with ipods and playlists this rant is a bit pointless as you can just chop and change, but i just had the noise of another track after that final closer. Anyone else agree or am i just being a dick?
team_cooper | 18 May '05, 13:59 | Send note | Report this | Reply

Re: Bonus Tracks Ruin Albums.

You're absolutely right but... my copy of Bloc Party's debut contains Little Thoughts which is an absolutely great pop song. This proves that bonus tracks can be good, but as you mentioned most if it is pretty useless.

Re: Bonus Tracks Ruin Albums.

i know what you mean ... it spoils the overall feel of the album ... as do "secret tracks" with their manditory 20+ minutes of silence tagged on the end of otherwise great albums

Re: Bonus Tracks Ruin Albums.

AFI have done some good secret tracks.

Re: Bonus Tracks Ruin Albums.

I agree, there's something about a neat, complete album with nothing extra on it which is much more satisfying when it works properly, and bonus/secret tracks are rarely very worthwhile anyway.

Re: Bonus Tracks Ruin Albums.

One of the worst things in the world is when you forget that an album has one of those hidden bonus tracks, and you fall asleep listening to said album. Then after the last song + 37 minutes something loud kicks in, and scares the bejeezus out of you.

Re: Bonus Tracks Ruin Albums.

Worst secret track ever : the Star 69 album had 69 tracksbut all tracks between 14 and 68 were blank !

Re: Bonus Tracks Ruin Albums.

The Second Coming by The Stone Roses has 99 tracks and the secret track is number 97 or something.

And the US version of Modern Life Is Rubbish by Blur has something similar as well as having Popscene added to the tracklist.

Re: Bonus Tracks Ruin Albums.

Yeah. Good point.
Bonus tracks piss me off.

Queens of the Stone Age are especailly bad at this. Songs for the Daef ends so well - and then there's a couple of stupid live track at the end...

Damn The Man, man.........


Re: Bonus Tracks Ruin Albums.

I don't mind the bonus tracks so much, especially if they are one a seperate cd, but secret tracks piss me off!

firstly you wait 20 frigging minutes for them, and then they normally turn out to be complete gash!

Re: Bonus Tracks Ruin Albums.

gallons of alcohol... on in utero is one of my favourite songs on the album!

Re: Bonus Tracks Ruin Albums.

gallons of alcohol... on in utero is one of my favourite songs on the album!

Re: Bonus Tracks Ruin Albums.

i kno wot uz mean about lumping a song on at the end, sum artists avoid this by being very sneaky....take for example the bloc party album, play track one and scan backwards/rewind to about -3mins then play n theres a nice wee hidden track

Re: Bonus Tracks Ruin Albums.

Soulwax do that as well, tis a lovely song about kc and the sunshine band on the begininng of much against everyones advice

Re: Bonus Tracks Ruin Albums.

are they any good? saw some nasty reviews of their latest album, but i dno, im interested

Re: Bonus Tracks Ruin Albums.

much against everyone's advice is fantastic, new album is pants apparently, although i dont have it so i cant really comment.

Erm download the following tracks...

Conversation intercom
Saturday
Much against everyones advice
Too many dj's (note too not 2)

Re: Bonus Tracks Ruin Albums.

will do, thank you much

Re: Bonus Tracks Ruin Albums.

Oh and also they 'used' to be really fucking good live but again recent reviews have been panning them. Probably still go and see them at glastonbury though...

Re: Bonus Tracks Ruin Albums.

ah rite, they played my sudent union...but i gave it a wide berth...will check out the songs tho....

Re: Bonus Tracks Ruin Albums.

why don't they just put the bonus tracks on another disc? like kaiser chiefs-employment. then life will be fine.

Re: Bonus Tracks Ruin Albums.

proley my favourite nirvana "tune".
love's forever changes ends with a load of studio outtakes - them stopping and starting the same song... gah
BUT
i do love me a bit of value, and the idea of using the entire capacity of the cd is a good one. i kinda feel that vinyl is better for listening to albums as albums.

Re: Bonus Tracks Ruin Albums.

I'm torn.......but I'd say this rule pretty much covers my feelings on the matter

'bonus tracks are good as long as they are on a reissue of an album, and as long as there is at least ten years between the original and reissue of said album'.

I think new albums with bonus tracks blow.......what's the point in the producer and band sequencing a good running order and then the bloody japanese or german record company sticking some unrelated tracks on the end of their version, and importing it back to the UK at a mark up......bah humbug