Do Young Artists Care About Album Sequencing? • Page 2

TEB's self titled is sequenced perfectly. It matters.

 

i care about it a lot, and it's clear that the artists making the albums i love the most put a lot of thought into it as well. it's also something that's important for curating playlists and why it's hard for me to want to put things on shuffle.

 

Wouldn't say sequencing ever ruins an album for me, but it does make me less likely to listen front to back in album form, or I'll resequence it entirely. Off the top of my head, The Dangerous Summer's Golden Record has the worst sequencing I've heard in an album.

 

The sequencing on all pre hiatus albums is immaculate but it's a huge part of Folie's attitude. Two huge epic closers 3/5 of the way through the record, and then throwing 5 energetic bangers on after it? Just incredible.

Also obviously Clarity is a perfectly sequenced record. Very epic.

 

Unpopular, but there's no sequencing of Clarity that makes that album not a snooze.

 

I think about this a lot when listening to albums, and like to imagine the different possibilities that could be had with rearranging tracks. It's interesting to me how Counterfit reworked the tracklist for their debut album when it was released on vinyl; I think that's almost a different experience in itself. Another thing I'll think about is how I would turn a mediocre album in a solid EP by removing the weakest songs from the tracklist. Sequencing is pretty important to my enjoyment of an album.

 

As someone who listens to albums in full I think this is really important for artists to think about.

I know most people in their 20s aren't listening to albums in full. So maybe younger people don't care a lot about it.

I know if I were to write an album it would be really important to me.

 

I sure hope so. It's an important aspect when finalizing an album.

 

Sequencing is def important to me but it doesn't typically ruin an album for me. To answer the question, I do find that a lot of younger bands these days are the main offenders of particularly bad album sequencing. I think a lot of times too, albums that lack strong sonic dynamic ranges are great examples of those with bad sequencing, because it's hard to get something to ebb and flow if it's just gonna putter along with the same sound the whole way through. The pop punk genre suffers from this especially.

 

In recent memory, the worst offender of this is Four Year Strong on their self titled record. There is absolutely zero reason that album should not have ended on the second to last song.

I have a friend that stands hard on that All Get Out's latest record should have ended with ATX. I think he's crazy. Haha.

 

I personally think TTTYG is one of the best sequenced albums I've ever owned. Not my favorite album (top5), but most likely my favorite album front-to-back-and-front again

 

I support this opinion

 

i do but i listen to music around albums, not songs

 

I'm quickly approaching 30, so I'm a little bit older than that age group that he's questioning, but to me, sequencing is underrated. It's pretty much the difference between an album and a mixtape. Even when I make a playlist, unless I'm planning on always keeping it on shuffle, my OCD will have me shuffling around songs to flow seamlessly from one to the next.

 

Yup.

I rarely ever make mixes/playlists for myself because of the preeminence of the album in my music tastes, but whenever I make a mix for someone else, I go hyper-detail-oriented in making sure the mood flows properly and all the transitions work, as you said, seamlessly.

 

Full albums now and always! Sequencing might do a pretty good job in getting some good approach to songs, it usually wouldn't ruin anything for me too, but I love it when it's clever.

 

it appears I'm literally the only person who doesn't care about sequencing haha I don't even notice it

 

The one that comes to mind for me is Microwave's newest album. I freaking love it, but would have loved to see it end on Vomit going into Whimper. Still listen to the crap out of that album though.

 

Like many others have said, I almost exclusively listen to albums start to finish, and have never spent much time listening on shuffle - I think my music collection is too varied to not finding it distracting switching between moods and genres.

Thrice is a band that I've typically liked their sequencing, although it's always stuck out to me that Anthology should have ended Major/Minor - even though they have a history of mellow finales.

 

And because Disarmed is the perfect song to come after Anthology, ya loon

 

Sound of Your Heart is one of FYS' best songs, and was the clear standout of that album. I want more songs like that one going forward.

 

Yeah I definitely care.

 

Cannot fathom how any one person, let alone an entire group of people, would think that tacking on GDIH after such an obvious album closer was anything close to a good idea. Haha I already didn't like GDIH and that whole stunt made it worse.

 

I love this conversation because, for whatever reason, album sequencing is a really overlooked aspect of music these days. Very few of my friends put any thought into how an album is sequenced. But for me, I love listening to albums rather than singles. I think that's what has really frustrated me about the recent trend of bands releasing EPs or short 10 song albums. It's not because I'm greedy and want more music, it's because so many artists are releasing music just to release music. They don't care about taking their listeners on a cohesive journey.

I think the best sequenced albums are the ones that have a narrative built into them. They listen a lot like a book reads. I've always loved listening to Anberlin's Cities for that reason. There's not necessarily a common lyrical theme throughout the album, but it feels like it's telling a story just by the way it sequences out the quiet moments, the darker moments, and the more triumphant moments. It wouldn't be the same if the album flowed in a different order. Same with mewithoutYou's Brother, Sister. I'm probably wrong about this, but I'm surprised if people who don't deem that record their best take album sequencing into account. Because I think it's one of the best sequenced albums. Period.

Also, I guess it goes without saying that great album sequencing always implies great songs. Because if you had a few mediocre songs in the mix it wouldn't matter how the album flows. All you'd hear is the mediocre songs.

 

Don't get me wrong, Disarmed is a great song, and I even recognize how it complements Anthology. But I love Anthology so much, and it hits such an epic high, that for me no song would be able to step out from its shadow following it. I only say that subjectively though, I'm not saying it's objectively a bad finale.