The Filler Syndrome

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Are there any songs that you never gave a fair shake because you first heard them amongst other, better songs? But came back to later in a different context and realized, "Damn! This song is actually a-okay!"? When I first started thinking about this it was in the context of greatest hits or singles collections, where all the songs are theoretically the best (although often it's just the more well-known ones), yet after listening to 12 "hits" in a row, some good songs are really bound to suffer, or at least not make much of an impression. It could also be in the context of a really killer album: a song that kills material from other bands but sounds lame compared to the rest of the album. Hell, it could even be an entire album from an artist that sounds like a stopgap compared to the rest of the band's catalogue, yet is utterly brilliant compared to other artist's better albums (here I'm thinking Bossanova by the Pixies, for me at least). So?

― Sean Carruthers, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I know a lot of people won't agree with me at all here, but some of the moments on the Replacements' last two "bad" albums are actually quite good compared to most music that's along similar lines (AOR classic rock). Then again, I'm very biased.

― larms, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I've often made tapes of just the standout tracks of albums which seemed to me to be full of filler (eg. So Tough - St Etienne) only to find that the albums were more enjoyable listened to the whole way through, 'weaker' tracks included. I guess this is because songs which are not particularly striking may still contribute vitally to the overall mood of a record, to its gestalt or whatever, or to its rhythmic flow.

Which isn't to say I respect the integrity of the album - any track I really don't like after five attempts I program out ever after, and if that interrupts the flow of the record I'll re-arrange some of the other tracks to compensate. (I keep a huge lever-arch file filled with details of which tracks need purging from which albums and what order the remaining tracks can best be programmed - am I the only person sad enough to do such a thing?)

― scott, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

you may be, scott...what about burning CDs with the crap songs or unfunny end of song skits cut out? i have a bunch of burned hip hop albums that i love but will never buy due to their awful skittiness.

― Larms, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

(I keep a huge lever-arch file filled with details of which tracks need purging from which albums and what order the remaining tracks can best be programmed - am I the only person sad enough to do such a thing?)

This is quite possibly the most astounding thing I have ever read on I Love Music. No, make that *anywhere*.

― Nick, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Good god, and I thought *I* was sad for having a pre-programmed sequence to automatically skip any of the Paul songs on Beatles albums!

― masonic boom, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Off the top of my head, Blur's "On Your Own", Dismemberment Plan's "Back & Forth" (I was always tired out by the end of the album), TVPersonalities' "Three Wishes",

― Alex Huynh, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yes, astounding. What's all this 'programming' anyway? I never 'programme' ('program'?) a CD except one track at a time.

Filler or stuff that seemed filler - it's true, there's loads of that stuff. REM are a good candidate I think: much of the second half of Life's Rich Pageant, for instance (titles escape me at the moment).

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I never set out to program out filler from an album, in fact I only skip really mind-blowingly awful tracks. And I mean they have to be REALLY bad - "Mind Gardens" from Younger Than Yesterday is one. The fact that some people STORE or REMEMBER programs for specific albums is, as Nick said, incredible!

I also try to resist cherry picking the best 3 or 4 tracks from an album and just playing them. I've found that, as someone mentioned above, "filler" usually does a job on an album and makes it worth taking as a whole. (Not valid for best ofs) I'd usually rather listen to half of an album in sequence than half the tracks that I consider as "not filler".

― Dr. C, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I've noticed that my girl friends will shamelessly listen to one song over and over and over again but many of my boy friends will listen to a record straight through without stopping, every time. Is that because it would be too 'emotional' to be hung up on one song?

― Maryann, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Larms, I like the last two Replacements albums. I'm probably not the typical fan cos I like Tim better than Let It Be. I don't have the albums anymore (not by choice), but I remember the fourth song on All Shook Down was really good - a line about a Singapore sling and fashion magazines and the airport. Or maybe that's another song.

Anyway, I'm in the 'listen to the entire album' camp, although I may repeat certain songs.

― youn, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Maryann...I only do that when I'm really drunk, obviously when male defences start to crumble...but my musical taste crumbles as well and it ends up being a song that really sucks and later on I can't figure out what I was thinking...like one night it was "Life on Mars" by David Bowie about 25 times really loud...yech. Why couldn't it have been "Andy Warhol"? Any suggestions?

― pat kraus, Tuesday, 5 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I do that when drunk too. I do it when sober but less extremely - 3 times in a row rather than 8, say.

"Life On Mars?" because it's more sentimental - it's straightforwardly about a failed affair (rather than about an artist) and it pushes all the musical buttons it has to to make you Feel The Pain too. I also think it's a way better track than "Andy Warhol" and for mostly those reasons.

― Tom, Tuesday, 5 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

A lot of the time I seem to be more lyric-focussed than many people on ILM. But there are some songs/artists that, although I love the way the lyrics sound, I've never really thought about what they mean as a whole. 'Life on Mars?' is about a failed affair, you say? I'll have to listen to it again.

― Nick, Tuesday, 5 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Actually this is an example of 'reviews' warping my opinion I suspect. "Straightforwardly" may have been somewhat stretched as a word, there. Supposedly, according to some Bowie biog I read (my first ever MUSIC BOOK!) it's about the fallout from his affair with Hermione whoever.

― Tom, Tuesday, 5 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"It's a godawful small affair/to the girl with the mousy hair"

best list in song: "my mother, my dog, and clowns"

― mark s, Tuesday, 5 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

...and the only song I can think of which mentions the Norfolk Broads. Or should that be Norfolk broads.

― Dr. C, Tuesday, 5 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"What's all this 'programming' anyway? I never 'programme' a CD except one track at a time." - pinefox.

-Every album you own is already programmed: condensed from a mass of inconsistent session material, paced, given coherence (ideally, but in practice often arbitrarily assembled - the process determined as much by whim or compromise as by artistic vision). If the resulting product is unsatisfactory in some way then I see no good reason not to at least attempt, by means of the cd programming button, further refinement. You've as much a right as whoever happened to compile the thing in the first place. And instead of complaining about how good a record could have been if only it didn't flag in the middle or whatever - put it right yourself! Then again, maybe I am just being anally-retentive.

― scott, Tuesday, 5 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Even I, the pinefox, understand that every LP is already 'programmed'. The reason I don't go in for 'programming' them in elaborate new orders myself is not cos I don't think an LP could ever be better in another order, or cos I always want to hear every single track - it's just cos 'programming' something sounds so arduous. Too much mental and finger effort for something that you'll probably have to interrupt and turn off in a couple of minutes anyway.

― the pinefox, Thursday, 7 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Some CD players save that kind of stuff.

― Josh, Thursday, 7 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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