The standout track on an album should be...

First song on side 2

Death Trip on Raw Power and Soon on Loveless make a strong case for last track.

one that comes deep enough into the album that it catches you offguard at the point you might otherwise be losing interest (but not right at the end so you haven't been subconsciously building it up the whole time either)

the premise of this thread feels bonkers to me tbh

if as an artist you've got one song you consider objectively much better than the others, you should work on the others until they're at that standard anyway ;)

but what if I only have one really great song in me but I can churn out a half hour of pretty good ones

First songs, I like albums that do not wait to offer a statement and show what they've got.

The second song (ie the Metallica Principle)

but what if I only have one really great song in me but I can churn out a half hour of pretty good ones

i.e. real life not imagoworld

'Depends on the album' is obviously the correct answer imo

Albums dribbling to a disappointing conclusion is always, er, disappointing. Having a banger around the middle of an album is good idea.

choosing to believe here that imago is doing a bit, as surely nobody genuinely holds that opinion.

...a puerile skit

I included a safetywink ffs, are the old ways of the internet so truly dead

anyway fine, insofar as the artist rather than the audience can determine what the bangers are, closing track

Was saying the premise of the thread is bonkers part of it?

I voted "depends on the album," but a lot of really great albums start with a standout track, so maybe I should have voted that.

But my idea of What An Album Is was very much formed by Highway 61 Revisited, so the platonic ideal of an album for me has an obvious banger at the beginning, an epic at the end, and at least one song in the middle that you end up liking more than Track 1 but it takes you a minute to realize it.

Saying the premise is bonkers was serious. How does an artist know what their own best songs are?

I then chose to reinterpret it as 'what is the most satisfying place for ones subjective favourite to be' which is probably what it was all along lol

(xp) now that IS a bonkers statement!

What's the idea that track 3 might have a higher likelihood of superiority than other non-openers/closers about?

Yeah I think that option should be Track 2

First song on side 2 OTM

You may well make the last track the stunner, but you'd better make the rest of the album "pretty good" too, otherwise the listener might not make it that far!

First song on side 2 OTM

― ian

First song on side 2 is required to be a 12-bar blues rocker

Albums shouldn’t have standout tracks. Standout tracks should be released as singles.

hehe well unless you're the Beatles you're likely to include singles on albums

I should've added examples but work's been so busy

should def also have added first song on side 2 as an option

I don't mean for this to seem thorough in any way but as an appetizer, looking at a random canonical selection we're all familiar with, the top 10 albums on acclaimed music, we get:

1 Pet Sounds (standouts A1 "Wouldn't it be Nice" and B1 "God Only Knows)
2 Nevermind (standouts #1 "Smells like" and #3 "Come As You Are")
3 Revolver (no logic I can see but does close with a wild and experimental jam)
4 The Velvet Underground & Nico (probably a big argument to be had but to me seems likely that B1 "Heroin" and album closer "European Son" received special sequencing)
5 What's Going On (title track standout opening track)
6 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (standouts #3 "Lucy in the Sky" and closer "A Day in the Life)
7 London Calling (title track opener is a standout and closer "Train in Vain" is perhaps 2nd standout?)
8 OK Computer (follows no logic I can see)
9 Blonde on Blonde (terrible opener, best song as #3, epic closer)
10 Exile on Main St. (no idea)

Lots of British bands in the 60s didn't have singles on albums.

It's always disappointing if an album peaks with the first song but otherwise I've got no strong feelings on this. I remember as a teen I had a half-baked theory that track 7 was often a standout but I can't remember what my evidence was apart from 'Monkey Gone to Heaven' on Doolittle.

Rule number 2 of Robert Forster's 'Ten Rules of Rock and Roll' was that "the second-last song on every album is the weakest". That's arguably true of Go-Betweens albums (although not 'The Clarke Sisters'), but doesn't really work as a rule of thumb.

It's definitely not true of "Before Hollywood".

Ok so more serious answer: it depends. I’m sure some loon for stats has already made a study feeding 1000 popular albums and discovering the usual placement.

Empirically speaking there’s three trends I’ve noticed:

1. If an album had a previous successful single that was meant as a stand-alone single but got included due to the label’s pressure it will be either the opening or the closing song of the album. I imagine to “separate” it from the concept.

2. Depending on the number of tracks the “standout” track will very likely be placed in the first 1/3 of the album.

3. If there’s several standouts it follows an A side/B side format where the first standout is located in the first 1/3 of the A Side and the second on the second 1/3.

Albums with several standouts and compilations don’t seem to follow any rhyme or reason.

If it's a rap album, the last track should be an experimental track that has fuck all to do with the rest of the album or has the wackest guests

track 13 out of 18 or 20

track 14 out of 15 or 16

albums should not be released unless there are at least 2 contenders for standout track. these 2 contenders should be placed as the last song, after the amount of silence that brings the total runtime up to 77 minutes, as bonus tracks

C-Murder should also be on teh song

If it's a rap album, the last track should be an experimental track that has fuck all to do with the rest of the album or has the wackest guests

― Dinglebert Humperstink (Neanderthal), Tuesday, September 5, 2023 9:47 AM (fifty-eight minutes ago)

posse cut remix of the single that came out before the album, wack guests option. if there are more than three guests, one of them is wack in some way

track 2 historically big for this ime!?

If it's a rap album, the last track should be an experimental track that has fuck all to do with the rest of the album...

What are some examples of this besides (the ones which come to mind) clipping. and Justin Warfield's Planet 9? (And I guess TPAB although it has everything to do with the album).

not so much 'experimental', but N.W.A.'s "Something 2 Dance 2" (though that was a product of its time more than a conscious decision).

probably best to sequence it like a baseball lineup, something fast at the top, a solid hit for the second track, the best one as the third, and a real heavy hitter for the fourth track. after that, arrange as you like but try to not make the last one just empty filler, get a sneaky catchy one if possible.

the funniest album closer on a rap album in recent memory was Juvenile's "Listen" at the end of Cocky and Confident. it was already a sucky album, but this song is an interpolation of Roxette's "Listen to Your Heart" and it's cornball af.

With albums who do this as the second track I often fall into the trap of always starting my album listen on track 2, thereby being oblivious to the potential greatness of track 1.

This happened years ago with radiohead's ok computer, where I really only figured out Airbag is a really good track after owning the album a couple of years. It's probably my favorite off the album now, possibly because I didn't do the obsessive overlistening with that track.

Otm. "Airbag" was a nothing track to me at first and became one of my top three favs from the album for that reason

It's not a "rule" but one of my favourite sequencing moves comes from Forever Changes: close side 1 with a downer epic and close side 2 with an uplifting epic.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

your mom

otm

If it's a rap album, the last track should be an experimental track that has fuck all to do with the rest of the album...
What are some examples of this besides (the ones which come to mind) clipping. and Justin Warfield's Planet 9? (And I guess TPAB although it has everything to do with the album).

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Tuesday, September 5, 2023 11:30 AM (three months ago) bookmarkflaglink

“last call” at the end of college dropout. “dontgetit” from tha carter iii, tho there are some bonuses afterward. those aren’t experimental, really, but they are extra long and rambling

the “pop’s rap” tracks that close out common albums like resurrection and like water for chocolate

“stanklove” from stankonia

“b.I.b.l.e. (basic instructions before leaving earth)” from liquid swords

stunning tracks *should* appear roughly 2/3 the way in an album, along with track #3. also, the penultimate track should be epic / a "standout" ... j/k. it totally depends on the album.

Lowell OTM.

I'm into album sequences where the "epic finale" is the penultimate track, and the final track is a an understated palate cleanser

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I always thought Track 1 needs to be very strong, but its intention should always be to set the mood

Track 2 should be “the best song” but not an immediate single, this is where you put “Hyperballad”

Tracks 4 through 6 (or 5 through 7) have to be the strongest sequence of songs, this is the B-side or Exile On Main Street (or Guyville for that matter)

And track 7 (the first song on Side B cassette, or Side C double-album) should be the undeniable single, this is “Cornflake Girl”, this is “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)”

Everything that comes after track 7 will ultimately define an album as being classic or otherwise, but the basic framework requires that particular structure for tracks 1 through 7

Track 3 it should be noted can be anything, good place for an experiment

*b-side _of_ Exile, that is

that's a good breakdown!