Altering Albums Using Playlists

I'm fascinated by the idea of taking an album and improving it by changing the track order, removing dud tracks and adding other songs (B sides, bonus out takes or songs from totally different albums if they fit).

Stylus Magazine have a whole set of articles about this called Playing God (http://www.stylusmagazine.com/archive.php?type=7&year=2005). Nine Inch Nails' "The Fragile" and Smashing Pumpkins' "Mellon Collie" get trimmed from two CDs to one. Radiohead's "Pablo Honey" and REM's "Up" get overhauled etc.

Does anyone here have any rearranged albums that they would like to share?

Someone else here called Lucas Hare posted this reworking of Bob Dylan's "Blood On The Tracks":

1. Tangled Up In Blue - from The Bootleg Series 1-3
2. Simple Twist Of Fate - from Blood On The Tracks
3. You're A Big Girl Now - from Biograph
4. Idiot Wind - from The Bootleg Series 1-3
5. You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go - from Blood On The Tracks
6. Meet Me In The Morning - from Blood On The Tracks
7. Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts - version above [he's referring to a video that went along with his original post]; the only one not commercially available
8. If You See Her, Say Hello - from The Bootleg Series 1-3
9. Shelter From The Storm - from Blood On The Tracks
10. Buckets Of Rain - from Blood On The Tracks

I personally have not rearranged any albums in a particularly noteworthy way.

If failing that then do you have any single artist Best Ofs that your particularly happy with?

I've got a good Bruce Springsteen and Nick Cave Best Of that I'm very happy with:

Springsteen Best Of, all but two songs taken from "The Essential Bruce Springsteen":

Born To Run
Badlands
Darkness On The Edge Of Town
The Promised Land
Stolen Car (not "The River" version, but instead the version from the "Tracks" 4CD box set)
Hungry Heart
Nebraska
Atlantic City
Born In The U.S.A
Glory Days
Dancing In The Dark
Tunnel Of Love
Janey Don't You Lose Heart (from the "Tracks" 4CD box set)
Lucky Town
The Rising
American Skin (41 Shots) (Live)

My Nick Cave Best Of has no slow ballads, instead I've made it into a HEAVY ROCK album:

Do You Love Me? (from The Best Of 1998)
Abattoir Blues (from Abattoir Blues)
Deanna (from The Best Of 1998)
Red Right Hand (from The Best Of 1998)
There She Goes, My Beautiful World (from Abattoir Blues)
Scum (from B-Sides & Rarities)
Mercy Seat (from The Best Of 1998)
Get Ready For Love (from Abattoir Blues)
Supernaturally (from The Lyre of Orpheus)
Hiding All the Way (from Abattoir Blues)
Tupelo (from The Best Of 1998)
O'Malley's Bar Part 1 (from B-Sides & Rarities)
O'Malley's Bar Part 2 (from B-Sides & Rarities)
O'Malley's Bar Part 3 (from B-Sides & Rarities)
Jack the Ripper (Acoustic) (from B-Sides & Rarities)
O'Malley's Bar Reprise (from B-Sides & Rarities)

I have also created a Pink Floyd Best Of that covers the pointless noodling stage of their career between 1968-1972, which can be seen at http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/pink-floyd-best-1968-1972.

Altering albums

The Queen is Dead could do with a bit of rearranging don't you think?

Surely Never Had No One Ever is a bit overwhelming after the intensity of I Know it's Over and wouldn't Never have been a fine ending?

So just swap Never and Some Girls are Bigger than dudders

And doesn't Setting Sons by The Jam let itself down slightly in the second half?
We could extract the cover of Heatwave and insert The Butterfly Collector or Strange Town and hey presto 10 out of 10! (also - the jury is out on the orchestral version of Smither Jones)

It's different now though isn't it, I mean, music doesn't last 18 minutes anymore
What did my mac tell me recently - 14 days and 3 hours how am i going to listen to all that before my dinner

Does anyone else insert clips of 30 seconds of silence into their library?

Kay

Kay Lester | 29 March 2008 - 10:05pm

The only time I believe it is beneficial

to insert silences into an album is when making copies of albums by Oasis or Radiohead, in which case the result is an overall improvement; inserting 55 minutes of silence into either of these results in an almost pleasurable listening experience.

Vulpes Vulpes | 30 March 2008 - 1:40pm

The Queen is Dead..

is perfect as it is. After all the intensity, 'Some Girls...' is the perfect reintroduction to the outside world.

However you are absolutely right about 'Setting Sons'.

And no - I think you might find the 30 seconds of silence thing is a bit of a personal idiosyncrasy?

Paul Waring | 29 March 2008 - 11:27pm

I have to admit...

...I do tend to create 'bonus tracks' on an album quite frequently. Considering there are plenty of tunes going begging as b-sides, I always feel it's a bit of a waste to not have them on the album too...

spikeyboy | 30 March 2008 - 10:59am

Can I have the listing for the Nick Cave

....without all the noisy rubbish, being a fan of his quieter melodic moments.....

Retropath2 | 31 March 2008 - 8:02am

REM - the mellow album

All the recent talk of REM not having produced any great songs/albums since 'Automatic for the People' is nonsense when you put together a "mellow" REM compilation. First, it is absolutely magnicifent and secondly, 75% of the songs are from 'Automatic...' and beyond.

A sad professor - Up
Be mine - New Adventures
Beat a drum - Reveal
Camera - Reckoning
Chorus & the ring - Reveal
Electrolite - New Adventures
Falls to climb - Up
Final straw - Around the Sun
Find the river - Automatic
Hairshirt - Green
Half a world away - Out of Time
I'll take the rain - Reveal
New Test Leper - New Adventures
Nightswimming - Automatic
Strange currencies - Monster
Sweetness follows - Automatic
Try not to breathe - Automatic
Untitled - Green
Why not smile - Up
You are the everything - Green

kb | 31 March 2008 - 11:12am

I tend to agree

They are pretty consistent when you look at it like that. The closest thing to a bad album is Around The Sun. The negative view of post Automatic is exagerrated. I still like the earliest ones best though. Sorry to prolong the whole REM hoo ha.

Sven | 31 March 2008 - 11:52am

Around the sun.....

...is not as bad an album as some make out. Terribly produced though. I heard most of the album during the tour and some of the flat, boring songs (so I thought) sounded great live.

Steve Hill | 31 March 2008 - 4:02pm