Boom, Fixed Your Album (3,158 views)

[Baronessa]

There isn't one AC/DC album that doesn't bring me some amount of joy, really. Some of my all time favourites come from the Fly on the Wall - Blow Up Your Video era, too, like "Who Made Who" and "Down on the Borderline". Whenever I think about combining albums by them, though, I always think of which albums would be compatible in Brian's vocal timeline. Like it or not, his swift decline made all of the band's albums with him kind of irreplaceable. I couldn't imagine those albums being removed from their place in time.

Here are those combinations of the AC/DC albums I mentioned. I'm also going to include some Backtracks songs from the albums' respective eras.

Fly on the Wall + Who Made Who + Blow Up Your Video:

1. "Who Made Who"
2. "This Means War"
3. "First Blood"
4. "Shake Your Foundations"
5. "Meanstreak"
6. "D.T."
7. "Fly on the Wall"
8. "Sink the Pink"
9. "Danger"
10. "Ruff Stuff"
11. "Down on the Borderline"
12. "That's the Way I Wanna Rock 'n' Roll"

The Razors Edge + Ballbreaker:

1. "Thunderstruck"
2. "Big Gun"
3. "Hard as a Rock"
4. "Boogie Man"
5. "If You Dare"
6. "The Furor"
7. "Ballbreaker"
8. "Are You Ready"
9. "Let's Make It"
10. "Moneytalks"
11. "Hail Caesar"
12. "The Razors Edge"

Somewhat naively perhaps I tried to stick to some sort of concept and consider album flow akin to the band's usual formula. Both Fly on the Wall and Blow Up Your Video also have pretty mediocre (crappy, if I'm honest) mix and master jobs, so they should also be produced like the remixes of "Shake Your Foundations" and "Sink the Pink" on Who Made Who.

[Deleted]

If I had to, I would rearrange Super Mario Galaxy Soundtrack Platinum Edition to more accurately reflect where chronologically the songs make their first major impression as I remember playing the game.

1. Overture
2. File Select
3. Luma
4. The Star Festival
5. Attack of the Airships
6. Catastrophe
7. Peach's Castle Stolen
8. Gateway Galaxy
9. Enter the Galaxy
10. Stolen Grand Star
11. A Chance to Grab a Star!
12. To the Observatory Grounds 1
13. Observation Dome
14. Course Select
15. Egg Planet
16. Interlude
17. Dino Piranha
18. Rosalina in the Observatory 1
19. Space Fantasy
20. Pipe Interior
21. Rainbow Mario
22. A Tense Moment
23. King Kaliente
24. The Honeyhive
25. The Toad Brigade
26. Big Bad Bugaboom
27. Aquatic Race
28. Space Athletic
29. Bowser’s Stronghold Appears
30. Megaleg
    
31. To the Observatory Grounds 2
32. Blue Sky Athletic
33. Space Junk Road
34. Airship Armada
35. Kamella
36. Speedy Comet
37. Star Ball
38. Battlerock Galaxy
39. Cosmic Comet
40. The Fiery Stronghold
41. The Big Staircase
42. Bowser Appears
43. King Bowser
44. Rosalina in the Observatory 2
45. Beach Bowl Galaxy
46. Beach Bowl Galaxy (Undersea)
47. Buoy Base Galaxy
48. Buoy Base Galaxy (Undersea)
49. Waltz of the Boos
50. Boo Race
51. Kingfin
52. Drip Drop Galaxy
53. Enter Bowser Jr!
54. Library
55. Sad Girl
56. Gusty Garden Galaxy
57. Chase the Bunnies!
58. Help!
59. Major Burrows
60. Ice Mountain
61. Ice Mario
62. A-Wa-Wa-Wa!
63. Lava Path
64. Fire Mario
65. Dusty Dune Galaxy
66. Rosalina in the Observatory 3
67. Super Mario 2007
68. Heavy Metal Mecha-Bowser
69. Flying Mario
70. Purple Comet
71. Deep Dark Galaxy
72. Melty Molten Galaxy
73. Star Ball 2
74. The Galaxy Reactor
75. Final Battle with Bowser
76. A Wish
77. Star Child
78. Daybreak - A New Dawn
79. Birth
80. Super Mario Galaxy
81. Family

The way it's originally arranged, most of the major orchestral tracks are on the first disc (the first 28 songs) as well as a few others, and the rest are on the second disc. Had this thread not been posed I would likely not have ever sat down and sorted the songs into this order. Both the original order and this order are good, but I think I may prefer the original order still.

[Baronessa]

Ocean Rain is beautiful, but I think the A and B sides should be flipped. "The Killing Moon" also feels much more like a closing song than the title track.

Like so:

1. "Seven Seas"
2. "My Kingdom"
3. "Ocean Rain"
4. "Silver"
5. "The Yo Yo Man"
6. "Crystal Days"
7. "Nocturnal Me"
8. "Thorn of Crowns"
9. "The Killing Moon"

[Bink]

Quebec by Ween is one of my favourite albums of all time ever. However realistically you could do some cutting down on the album and benefit from it, so I came up with the following tracklist

Side One:
1. "It's Gonna Be a Long Night"
2. "Chocolate Town"
3. "Transdermal Celebration"
4. "So Many People In The Neighborhood"
5. "Happy Colored Marbles"
6. "If You Could Save Yourself (You'd Save Us All)"

Side Two:
7. "Among His Tribe"
8. "Tried And True"
9. "I Don't Want It"
10. "Alcan Road"
11. "The Argus"

Total runtime is about 42 minutes. Honestly, I love this version so much that I just listen to this version instead of the original album. Obviously kept some tracks in there for the Ween of it all such as "So Many People in The Neighborhood" however side two is actually just immaculate. Would recommend listening to this one.

Quebec but better on Spotify

[analC***fan1000]

I know this has been already talked about twice but I think if you do any justice to Metallica's Load/Reload is to fuse them together. This came at a dumbass time where it was trendy to release two albums that were fine enough as single but then separated and had filler added to them to make it a "different albums" (ex: see Gun N' Roses Use your Illusion I & II). Here's my attempt at fixxxing fixing it:

1. Fuel
2. Thorn Within
3. Devil's Dance
4. The House Jack Built
5. Bleeding Me
6. King Nothing
7. Fixxer
8. The Unforgiven II

Now it's a lot less bloated, shorter, and better in my opinion. Having fan favorites like Fuel and King Nothing it stands now if it were released to be a pretty decent unexpected Metallica project that dives into hard rock, alt metal, and southern metal. As extra, I've found this cool custom "Unload" album cover that I think it would fit:

[Osmosis]

Be Here Now is by all accounts a good album, but it has been marred by 90s media politics as well as poor mixing, tracklisting and release decisions, in large part due to excessive cocaine intake. The material features great vocals and melodies but is held back by weak riffs, overblown production, excessive length and weak lyrics. Although the material was never as strong as the first two albums, it is still a good album (their third best) and I think it would have been easier for the public (and media) to appreciate that given a better tracklisting.

Side One

1. "My Big Mouth"
2. "Stay Young"
3. "Don't Go Away"
4. "The Girl In The Dirty Shirt"*
5. "I Hope, I Think, I Know"

Side Two

1. "D'You Know What I Mean?"*
2. "Stand By Me"*
3. "Be Here Now"*
4. "All Around the World"*
5. "It's Gettin' Better (Man!!)"*

*Denotes songs in need of reduced length and incidence of excessively repeated segments.

Though most of the tracks are still the same. I still think this running order works better.  I removed "Magic Pie" and "Fade-In Out"because they kill the pace of the album and just aren't the strongest tracks. They are better suited as b-sides, especially "Magic Pie". "Don't Go Away" is track three, mirroring where "Live Forever" and "Wonderwall" were on the previous two albums. 

Single Release Order

1. "Stay Young"
2. "Don't Go Away
3. "My Big Mouth"/"D'You Know What I Mean?"
4. "Stand By Me"

Here's my rationale for the revised single release order.

"Stay Young" should have been on the album and a single at that. The chorus is a little cheesy but it is a strong song that fits the radio far better than the other tracks released as singles and it is certainly better than the bloated "Magic Pie". The song would follow nicely along from the 1st singles issued for Definitely Maybe and WTSMG? in pace and energy. It certainly doesn't have as much balls as "Supersonic" or "Some Might Say" but it would appropriately excite people for the new album and better set the mood for the revised album. 

I think the releases were botched. "Don't Go Away" as it was released was the only radio friendly song on the album (from a length and mix perspective) and was the biggest hit on the album in America - reaching number 35 on the radio singles chart, higher than all songs stateside barring "Champagne Supernova" and "Wonderwall". All the Be Here Now singles did well in the UK, coming in at number 1, 2 and 1 again so you might as well release a song that will also grow your presence in a market that has proven difficult to date. It is the softest song on the record and a bit of a stand alone on the record but so was Wonderwall from the second album and that has gone on to become the biggest song of the 90s. A missed oppurtunity and in hindsight, especially so when you consider the untimely death of Princess Diana. 

The third slot is a toss up between "D'You Know What I Mean?" and "My Big Mouth". Given the furor from "Wonderwall", "D'You Know What I Mean?" might be a decent bet however, the song is rather long and a bit flaccid and so something like "My Big Mouth" would work better as a single. It's a faster number and has a much bigger chorus. Plus, the song was already trialled in 1996. The only issue is that Liam would not have been able to sing it in 1997 so that is perhaps a consideration worth bearing in mind.

With time, "Stand By Me" has become one of the band's biggest classics and so needed to be released as a single at some point. The 4th single seems fine to me. 

[Henny Macc]

Mar 4, 2022 14:33:21 GMT Baronessa said:

Mar 3, 2022 22:36:41 GMT Henny Macc said:

Honestly the best thing would've been if they had narrowed down the best tracks of both albums and released them as one without the filler. I feel the same way about Guns n' Roses' Use Your Illusion albums to a degree - which they actually did do release a single-disc trimmed down version of, but ironically I'd say that version still kept some of the worst and got rid of some of the best unfortunately. I might end up revisiting both of those album duos sometime in the Fix Your Albums thread.

Anyway, as far as Load vs. ReLoad goes, I'd say both of them have their fair share of good songs and forgettable songs, but Load overall has more good songs, and some of the good songs are legit bangers. Looking back on the ReLoad track list though, there really aren't that many songs on there that I can say are truly great songs that I go out of my way to relisten to very often.

We're doing it now !

Let's call it Fixxxer for extra irony points:

1. "The House That Jack Built"
2. "Until It Sleeps"
3. "Hero of the Day"
4. "The Unforgiven II"
5. "Bleeding Me"
6. "The Memory Remains"
7. "Prince Charming"
8. "Fixxxer"
9. "Mama Said"
10. "Thorn Within"
11. "Low Man's Lyric"

I think this would be an amazing album conceptually; it has a really clear through-line for the themes of addiction and giving it a sort of abstract narrative. A super bummer narrative with this sequencing, but I like bleak albums anyway.

Basically, up to and including "Bleeding Me" we're introduced to the album and we're exploring some general themes. The main character talks about himself in a self-pitying fashion and we hear how he talks to himself. "The Memory Remains" comments on everything we've been through so far and sets up "Prince Charming", which is the big high, absolutely tainted with the demon inside the main character. Then it all comes to a halt for a crashing comedown and a super sentimental couple of songs about mom and dad, the main character basically writhing with the pain of all these memories that he's been trying to run away from. "Thorn Within" might be a bit of a weird addition to the track listing, but it brings us full circle with the protagonist's characterisation, to where we find his emotional center. He's talking directly to us now; he's completely embittered and doesn't believe he's worthy of redemption. By "Low Man's Lyric" we're basically back thematically with "The House That Jack Built", seeing the main character regretfully indulging in his addictions, and the cycle begins again.

I really like "King Nothing" but I don't think it would fit narratively into this album. Maybe have it as a promotional single or do some sort of EP with that song in it à la Beyond Magnetic. There's more than enough songs to do that with on both of these albums. I love the idea of the lullaby-esque hurdy-gurdy book-ending the stretch beginning from "The Memory Remains", too.

So I relistened to Load over the weekend and was surprised to be reminded of just how solid of an album it actually is. My memory of it was that it was about half bangers, half filler, but the filler portion turned out to be much smaller than I remembered. Honestly the only songs that I think don't need to be on that album are "Poor Twisted Me", "Ronnie", and "Wasting My Hate" (which is easily the weakest track on the album imo). My one other note for it is that "The Outlaw Torn" could stand to be cut down by a few minutes, because the jam section towards the end starts to get pretty mindless after a certain point, but otherwise that's a good song that can stay. 

But yeah, trim it down to 11 songs instead of 14 and ~64 minutes instead of 79, and you would have a super strong album right there. So in retrospect it may have actually been fine for Load and ReLoad to exist as separate albums after all; perhaps they each just needed some reduction to make them flow better/be worth more bang-for-your-buck length-wise. I'll give ReLoad a relisten sometime soon and see if I have a similar revision to make for that one.

[NJ]

My own version of the compilation "Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd", with an improved track selection and order, while still being restricted to two CDs and four vinyl records:

Disc One:
A1 - Astronomy Dominé (4:10)
A2 - See Emily Play (2:53)
A3 - Let There Be More Light (5:38)
A4 - Summer ’68 (5:28)
B1 - The Happiest Day of Our Lives (1:38)
B2 - Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2 (4:01)
B3 - Dogs (17:00)

C1 - Money (6:22)
C2 - Sheep (10:00) (slightly early fade out)
D1 - One of These Days (5:56)
D2 - Echoes (10:50) (fade out before the ambient part)
D3 - Wish You Were Here (5:41)
Total length: 79:37

Disc Two:
E1 - Hey You (4:40)
E2 - The Final Cut (4:46)
E3 - Wearing the Inside Out (6:50)
F1 - Marooned (5:30)
F2 - Time (6:27) (without the clock intro)
F3 - The Great Gig in The Sky (4:40)

G - Shine On You Crazy Diamond (25:00) (cutting a bit where parts V and VI meet)
H1 - Us and Them (7:55)
H2 - Comfortably Numb (6:22)
H3 - High Hopes (7:48)
Total length: 79:58 (damn)

- It seemed appropriate to start with songs from the earlier albums, and having stuff from their late career (and other really acclaimed songs) in the second half. You could maybe rearrange this into a purely chronological order, but that's not as fun (also, duration limits).
- Some painful cuts, I know: "Run Like Hell", "In The Flesh", "Brain Damage/Eclipse", "Fearless", "Sorrow", any live version, etc.
- Originally wanted to have "Things Left Unsaid" as some kind of unreleased exclusive, before swapping it with something from The Final Cut.
- Of course, let James Guthrie do his magic with the transitions. Interested in how an original one between the final two tracks could work.

[Baronessa]

Jun 2, 2023 2:25:18 GMT Henny Macc said:

Mar 4, 2022 14:33:21 GMT Baronessa said:

We're doing it now !

Let's call it Fixxxer for extra irony points:

1. "The House That Jack Built"
2. "Until It Sleeps"
3. "Hero of the Day"
4. "The Unforgiven II"
5. "Bleeding Me"
6. "The Memory Remains"
7. "Prince Charming"
8. "Fixxxer"
9. "Mama Said"
10. "Thorn Within"
11. "Low Man's Lyric"

I think this would be an amazing album conceptually; it has a really clear through-line for the themes of addiction and giving it a sort of abstract narrative. A super bummer narrative with this sequencing, but I like bleak albums anyway.

Basically, up to and including "Bleeding Me" we're introduced to the album and we're exploring some general themes. The main character talks about himself in a self-pitying fashion and we hear how he talks to himself. "The Memory Remains" comments on everything we've been through so far and sets up "Prince Charming", which is the big high, absolutely tainted with the demon inside the main character. Then it all comes to a halt for a crashing comedown and a super sentimental couple of songs about mom and dad, the main character basically writhing with the pain of all these memories that he's been trying to run away from. "Thorn Within" might be a bit of a weird addition to the track listing, but it brings us full circle with the protagonist's characterisation, to where we find his emotional center. He's talking directly to us now; he's completely embittered and doesn't believe he's worthy of redemption. By "Low Man's Lyric" we're basically back thematically with "The House That Jack Built", seeing the main character regretfully indulging in his addictions, and the cycle begins again.

I really like "King Nothing" but I don't think it would fit narratively into this album. Maybe have it as a promotional single or do some sort of EP with that song in it à la Beyond Magnetic. There's more than enough songs to do that with on both of these albums. I love the idea of the lullaby-esque hurdy-gurdy book-ending the stretch beginning from "The Memory Remains", too.

So I relistened to Load over the weekend and was surprised to be reminded of just how solid of an album it actually is. My memory of it was that it was about half bangers, half filler, but the filler portion turned out to be much smaller than I remembered. Honestly the only songs that I think don't need to be on that album are "Poor Twisted Me", "Ronnie", and "Wasting My Hate" (which is easily the weakest track on the album imo). My one other note for it is that "The Outlaw Torn" could stand to be cut down by a few minutes, because the jam section towards the end starts to get pretty mindless after a certain point, but otherwise that's a good song that can stay. 

But yeah, trim it down to 11 songs instead of 14 and ~64 minutes instead of 79, and you would have a super strong album right there. So in retrospect it may have actually been fine for Load and ReLoad to exist as separate albums after all; perhaps they each just needed some reduction to make them flow better/be worth more bang-for-your-buck length-wise. I'll give ReLoad a relisten sometime soon and see if I have a similar revision to make for that one.

Yeah it's good. I honestly enjoy all the songs on it, although some of them get more boring than others the more they go on. It's pretty apparent that "Poor Twisted Me" and "Wasting My Hate" are just iterating on "Bleeding Me" and they were spreading themselves really thin by making all three separate songs. Hearing those riffs as interludes in "Bleeding Me" or something would have been much cooler, à la Kill 'Em All where the songs are just "Oops! All Riffs".

[Henny Macc]

Okay, time to do ReLoad now, since I relistened to that one yesterday. Similar feelings on that one, where I think you mainly just need to nix about three songs to make it more concise and worth the run time, but in this case it was a bit less obvious which songs those were and what else the album needed in order to be fixed. In the case of Load, I think once you take out those three and a half songs it's basically a rock solid album, but I think ReLoad needed a few songs removed and then a rearrangement of the track order, which I'll attempt to do here.

1. "Fuel"
2. "The Memory Remains"
3. "Prince Charming"
4. "Bad Seed"
5. "The Unforgiven II"
6. "Devil's Dance"
7. "Where the Wild Things Are"
8. "Low Man's Lyric"
9. "Carpe Diem Baby"
10. "Fixxxer"

Basically I tried to go for a mood that starts out with some of the more fun and energetic tracks with "Fuel" and "The Memory Remains" (per the original album of course), transitions into darker but still more mischievously fun songs with "Prince Charming" and "Bad Seed", then starts to get more serious with "The Unforgiven II" and then gradually more haunting and unsettling with "Devil's Dance" and "Where the Wild Things Are", before taking a breather with "Low Man's Lyric" for something gentler and more somber, before getting more climactic with "Carpe Diem Baby", and then of course the perfect original closer that was "Fixxxer".

As you can see, the three songs that I decided to cut in this instance were "Better Than You", "Slither", and "Attitude". "Slither" is probably the one that stood the best chance of making the cut still, but relistening to it had me noticing that it bears a pretty close resemblance in some ways to "King Nothing", and it feels like the band may have been recycling some of their own ideas a little bit too closely with that one. "Better Than You" is a pretty repetitive and forgettable song in my book though, and "Attitude" is both forgettable AND reminiscent of some of the songs off Load - as I noticed similarities to both "Ain't My Bitch" and "Wasting My Hate" in some ways.

With that said, this relisten also reminded me of some songs that were way better than I remembered that I hadn't revisited in a while. "Carpe Diem Baby" and "Where the Wild Things Are" were two in particular that I now consider buried gems in Metallica's discography, that somehow had never stood out to me quite as much before. "Low Man's Lyric" was also a highlight for me - I forgot how good the bridge in that one is, and there's some really nice vocal harmonies in it.