Albums that your stereo's program function was made for

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Fonda 500 have just released a 9-track album that could be the year's best. No wait, they haven't, they've released a 16-track album where the genius frazzled-pop bits are interspersed with aimless casio-plinking and half-baked, jokey sketches. Pah! But with the joys of programming, we put in Tracks 1,3,5,6,8,9,11,13,14 - and the album's greatness is revealed.

What albums do you find get great benefit from the program function? (Or to put it another way, what albums have huge divisions between the highs and the lows?)

Personal favourites of mine: Flaming Lips' "Transmissions from the Satellite Heart" should run: 1. Turn it On 2. Pilot can at the Queer of God 4. She Don't Use Jelly 5. Chewin' the Apple of your Eye 7. Be My Head 9. * * * * * * * 11. Slow Nerve Action

The Beta Band's "The Three EP's" should run: 1. Dry the Rain 2. I Know 3. B + A 5. Inner Meet Me 8. She's the One 11. Dr.Baker 12. Needles in my Eyes

That's much better, now, isn't it?

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Saturday, 3 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I have these two on cassette only, and would dearly love to programme them, but can't:

Underworld's "Beaucoup Fish" should run: 2. Push Upstairs 3. Jumbo 4. King of Snake 6. Skym 7. Bruce Lee 11. Moaner

Tuneless nosebleed techno, begone! Massive Attack's "Protection" should go like this:

2. Karmacoma 3. Three 5. Spying Glass 7. Eurochild 8. Sly

Anodyne, polished soul begone! Everyone's a winner.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Saturday, 3 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Sandinista!" to thread!

― J Blount, Saturday, 3 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

And closely related: One Bad Track.

― lyra in seattle, Saturday, 3 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

no. 1 hi-fi hair is just a bit confused, it's all genius even the run out groove in the middle. where are the jokey sketches? my cd is missing them.

― keith, Saturday, 3 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Take "Brothers In Arms", and ignore everything post track 3. Voila, the best single with two B-sides ever.

― Dom Passantino, Saturday, 3 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i love erykah badu "mama's gun" if you program out the craptastic "in love with you" IF I WANTED TO HEAR YOUR STOOPID ASS "STEPHEN MARLEY" I'D PUT ON YOUR ALBUM, NOW WOULDN'T I?? I DON'T EVEN THINK YOU HAVE ONE, WELL MAYBE MELODY MAKERS OR WHATEVER...

same with PJ Harvey "stories etc." IF I WANTED TO HEAR YOUR STOOPID ASS "THOM YORKE" I'D PUT ON A RADIOHEAD ALBUM NOW WOULDN'T I?? OK WELL MAYBE I DON'T THINK YOU ARE STOOPID "THOM" BUT JUST GET OFF THE PJ HARVEY CD, YOU ARE NOT WANTED HERE.

― Ron, Saturday, 3 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

BloodSugarSexMagik

― Lord Custos III, Saturday, 3 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The New Pornographers' 'Mass Romantic' is a very good example of this.

the real tracklising of course should be: mass romantic, the fake headlines, letter from an occupant, the body says no.

― Wyndham Earl, Saturday, 3 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

or "mass romantic" programmed 20 times in a row!!

― Ron, Saturday, 3 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Sting's Ten Summoner's Tales should have included just ten tracks if i ever lose my faith in you, love is stronger than justice, fields of gold, she's too good for me, seven days, saint augustine in hell, it's probably me, everybody laughed but you, shape of my heart, nothing 'bout me

― gil, Saturday, 3 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

is this an appropriate forum to whine about countless alternate takes messing up the programming of great jazz albums? If I wanted to hear every time that Miles Davis was caught coughing on tape, I would prefer a compilation...

― Aaron G!, Saturday, 3 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Dead Bees on a Cake David Sylvian's 1999 cd Too many tracks (14), some songs are dreadful and kill any momentum, plus the sequence of songs pretty much sux

#10) Pollen Path #2)Dobro 1 #3)Midnight Sun #7)Krishna Blue #8)The Shining of Things #5)Godman #11)All of my Mother's Names #14)Darkest Dreaming

― megan, Saturday, 3 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Tricky's Anels With Dirty Faces could really do losing a few tracks, such as Money Greedy and Mellow and 6 Minutes and The Moment I Feared and Talk To Me and Demise and Tear Out Your Eyes and Record Companies and Taxi. And maybe also Carriage For Two. And especially Peyote Sings, which is the most godawful thing he ever did. Broken Homes and Singing The Blues and Analyze Me would have made neat little EP and everyone would have been happy, except perhaps for Tricky himself, who is never happy.

― alex linsdell, Saturday, 3 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

there should probably be another g in there somewhere.

― alex linsdell, Saturday, 3 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

and perhaps an 'a'

― Ron, Sunday, 4 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Gotta disagree about AWDF. The only thing that I would take off of that record is "Demise" and replace the album version of "The moment I Feared" with the live version. Something about "Demise" just doesn't work until Martina comes in and saves the song. And the live version of "The Moment I Feared" is very jazzy and hyonotic. Just plain badass, really. I haven't heard "Taxi", but I think "Peyote Sings" is one of the BEST things that he's done.

― Brenya, Sunday, 4 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Pavement's Wowee Zowee is always better on shuffle/random. "Western Homes" is the only track I wouldn't miss though.

― Aaron A., Sunday, 4 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"no. 1 hi-fi hair is just a bit confused, it's all genius even the run out groove in the middle. where are the jokey sketches? my cd is missing them."

You're correct, "Jokey sketches" was the wrong choice of description. The whole record is somewhat half-baked, but while this works on some tracks (lending them greater charm), there are several aimless doodles which should have been left on the cutting-room floor.

No.1 Hi-fi Hair IS a genius record, though. I'd take a patchy but inspired album over consistent solidity any day.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Sunday, 4 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

for the record, massive attack are neither "tuneless" or techno. on a more subjective note, i think 'protection' and 'weather storm' are the best songs on the album

― Ron, Sunday, 4 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I think he was referring to Underworld.

― J Blount, Sunday, 4 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

alb that have many tracks on shuffle play are v.good. 'Trout mask' is an example of that.

― Julio Desouza, Sunday, 4 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

yes, perhaps he was. the formatting here gets us all from time to time. pardons

― Ron, Sunday, 4 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"I think he was referring to Underworld."

Indeed I was.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Monday, 5 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i like the Bends as: 1.planet telex 3.high & dry 4.fake plastic trees 6.nice dream 7.just 8.my iron lung 9.bullet proof 12.street spirit. at least thats how i listen to it also, i think In Utero is a classic album if you omit rape me, very ape, and pennyroyal tea

― matt, Monday, 5 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

If I was going to reprogram _Beaucoup Fish_, I'd just put "Kittens", "Jumbo", "Winjer" and "King Of Snake" on endless repeat.

― Dan Perry, Monday, 5 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Haha who cares if he was talking about Underworld, it still said "techno" and we could definitely have a debate about that one. Unless of course you're american in which case fuck it it's all techno, doesn't matter eh?

I have never used the program function on anything I own, not cos I love every song on every album, but the notion of really hating some or picking my own order for an album (different to random, in fairness) is odd to me. If you've never used program give me a hell yeah.

― Ronan, Monday, 5 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

well kilian would appear to be irish. as for me, as long as were not calling massive attack techno, i'm good. beyond that, i'm staying out of it. :-)

― Ron, Tuesday, 6 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ronan KNOWS I'm not American. Still, 1000 apologies for any misuse of the word "Techno". But my basic point was...

I like some of the tracks on Beaucoup Fish enough to want to listen to them a lot...

BUT...

...I dislike some tracks enough to want to skip through them...

UNFORTUNATELY...

I only have the album on cassette. Anyone know a way of programming tapes?

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Tuesday, 6 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

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