Are you an Album track skipper/editor/deleter?

It's come to my attention, mainly in the Syro thread, that skipping or deleting tracks from albums is a very common practice.

This gives me the screaming fucking meemies to be quite honest. And that's not like my usual, laid back, cooler than a glass of icewater with ice, persona.

So this thread is for those who practice this noisome act to admit it and to explain why (FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WHY) they do it.

i dont listen to albums because almost none exist where i like all the tracks. i dont delete the tracks, but il happily just listen to two or three tracks and then move on. shit happens.

see. that I don't mind at all.

Also I know you're quite developed musically anyway.

but.

do you ever think that the tracks you don't like may reveal themselves given repeated listens?

tbh, this will sound weird but i actually dont really care about music that much. dont get me wrong, i enjoy it, and i listen to alot of it, but i mean i listen to about 80 percent classical piano music while sober. around the age of 23 i just kind of stopped giving a shit.

true musical enjoyment for me is sitting down for a few hours at the piano and learning stuff. so the idea of having some tracks on an album that i might have enjoyed if i had given them more time just doesnt worry me atall.

im basically just a shitty music fan.

edit: with my favourite composers i will often sit and listen to entire suites, or sonatas though.

sure i skip or even delete buttfuckin horrible tracks

it depends on the music or the album

mostly i just shuffle through my playlists and play the tracks or albums i wanna hear

lol, is something wrong with that??

this is why i love ambient music so much. it just sits there and chills, demands nothing of you, but sounds amazing.

^ agree with that fer shure.

I'm mainly talking about Albums with a capital A. An Album that someone spent a lot of time and effort making and arranging. That someone maybe structured like a novel or whatever.... They tried to follow the listener's mood through it.

We were talking about this in chat and a few people were in agreement that 180db is perfectly placed in Syro. It's a perfect break from the complexity of the first 4 tracks but is such a mini endurance that you go into the Circlont tracks (the choppiest of Syro's tracks) with relief.

That's kinda what I mean about thought being behind the structure of an album.

i think every aphex twin album has a track that i don't like, i always skip em cause i know em

edit: not the case with syro yet

I skip pretty much skip any Ambient track over 60 seconds if it's on a non-Ambient album. I don't think I've heard Pandi since the first time I listened to Angels & Devils.

why would i listen to a track i dont enjoy? lol

Cuz you might enjoy it after a few listens innit?

Oh shit sorry I forgot, immediate gratification culture and shizzle.

Yeah I realise that's maybe hyperbolic. Still don't think it's that far from the truth though.

Children don't like the taste of alcohol or olives.

The answer is YES!

I love making my own playlists and compilations. Sometimes I even edit stuff out that I don't like on some tracks, change BPM/pitch (hello Tuss LP) or redo the mastering/apply EQ when that needs to be done.

  On 10/1/2014 at 1:55 AM, hello spiral said:

Cuz you might enjoy it after a few listens innit?

 

Oh shit sorry I forgot, immediate gratification culture and shizzle.

 

Yeah I realise that's maybe hyperbolic. Still don't think it's that far from the truth though.

 

Children don't like the taste of alcohol or olives.

I do not do any of those things (skip/edit/delete).

But Osla for N is still shit.

<3

  On 10/1/2014 at 1:55 AM, entropi said:

The answer is YES!

I love making my own playlists and compilations. Sometimes I even edit stuff out that I don't like on some tracks, change BPM/pitch (hello Tuss LP) or redo the mastering/apply EQ when that needs to be done.

  On 10/1/2014 at 1:58 AM, hello spiral said:

Haha, what's the problem? I do what I want with the audio I buy and it is just played on my own systems.

Yes. The only album I haven't touched since its perfect is Ravedeath 1972 by Mr. Hecker.

You're thinking about it too hard man. I've certainly done this for some of the releases I own. Just because someone put a lot of time into an album or EP doesn't mean it's perfect or great. There's no such thing as a perfect album, certainly. The moment you prefer one track over another, it's not perfect. Sometimes I'll feel that a track breaks the continuity of the album, sometimes a track just sucks, etc., so I'll delete it, and therefore I don't have to skip it. For the vast majority of music that I own, though, I haven't deleted anything.

An example would be Biosphere's Patashnik. Some of the techno tracks on there are incredibly dated and corny sounding. Tempos are too fast; they sound silly. So I deleted them. Much better album if you get rid of tracks 4, 8, and 10 . In some cases it's just a product of the times, in other cases it's an example of poor taste. Shit happens. Again, no such thing as a perfect album, and there's no artist out there with a truly flawless discography. Let's be real.

  On 10/1/2014 at 2:33 AM, logakght said:

Yes. The only album I haven't touched since its perfect is Ravedeath 1972 by Mr. Hecker.

Touché.

Now you've made me reverse my whole argument.

I only tried to listen to Ravedeath once and turned it off half way through.

Fucking awful album.

i consider an album perfect if i can listen all the way through without wanting to skip. sometimes an album may have a song that completely throws off the vibe of the songs before and after it, so if its one of those filler types of deals i'll just delete it.

i NEVER edit tracks. i feel like that is heresy. although I've wanted to shave off some boringly long ambient intros to some of my favorite tunes, but i know the artist wrote the song for it to sound that way, so whatever.

I'll admit I skip through the first 22 minutes of Goldie's track - Mother.

  On 10/1/2014 at 2:43 AM, Deion Sanders said:

You're thinking about it too hard man. I've certainly done this for some of the releases I own. Just because someone put a lot of time into an album or EP doesn't mean it's perfect or great. There's no such thing as a perfect album, certainly. The moment you prefer one track over another, it's not perfect. Sometimes I'll feel that a track breaks the continuity of the album, sometimes a track just sucks, etc., so I'll delete it, and therefore I don't have to skip it. For the vast majority of music that I own, though, I haven't deleted anything.

 

An example would be Biosphere's Patashnik. Some of the techno tracks on there are incredibly dated and corny sounding. Tempos are too fast; they sound silly. So I deleted them. Much better album if you get rid of tracks 4, 8, and 10 . In some cases it's just a product of the times, in other cases it's an example of poor taste. Shit happens. Again, no such thing as a perfect album, and there's no artist out there with a truly flawless discography. Let's be real.

I'm actually coming at this from the opposite end.

If somebody making art is attempting to make another human being experience what they intended or empathise from their viewpoint, that's what I want to attempt to do; no matter how flawed their attempts may be.

It's not about flawlessness. It's about the flaws and why they are interesting.

Why delete something because it sounds silly? What's wrong with silly?

What's wrong with dated?

If it ain't complete, it ain't worth listening to.

WTF??? Why would anyone do that? -_-

  On 10/1/2014 at 2:52 AM, hello spiral said:

I'm actually coming at this from the opposite end.

 

If somebody making art is attempting to make another human being experience what they intended or empathise from their viewpoint, that's what I want to attempt to do; no matter how flawed their attempts may be.

 

It's not about flawlessness. It's about the flaws and why they are interesting.

 

Why delete something because it sounds silly? What's wrong with silly?

What's wrong with dated?

Amen brother, I've been kicking it over in this very end with a cocktail and pipe for a while now, probably as close to pure album listener here as you'll find. Just feel like I want to imbibe the artist's complete statement in making it, arranging it, etc. Sure it might not be perfect (and border on unpalatable) in some parts, but like you say it's not about perfection. It also makes finding a "great" album (subjectively beautiful in mood, flow, texture, etc.) amongst a sea of good ones* all the more rewarding.

* unless it's checking out new shit, I'd hope that we're all listening to something we'd at least consider "good"

  On 10/1/2014 at 2:52 AM, hello spiral said:

 

  On 10/1/2014 at 2:43 AM, Deion Sanders said:

You're thinking about it too hard man. I've certainly done this for some of the releases I own. Just because someone put a lot of time into an album or EP doesn't mean it's perfect or great. There's no such thing as a perfect album, certainly. The moment you prefer one track over another, it's not perfect. Sometimes I'll feel that a track breaks the continuity of the album, sometimes a track just sucks, etc., so I'll delete it, and therefore I don't have to skip it. For the vast majority of music that I own, though, I haven't deleted anything.

 

An example would be Biosphere's Patashnik. Some of the techno tracks on there are incredibly dated and corny sounding. Tempos are too fast; they sound silly. So I deleted them. Much better album if you get rid of tracks 4, 8, and 10 . In some cases it's just a product of the times, in other cases it's an example of poor taste. Shit happens. Again, no such thing as a perfect album, and there's no artist out there with a truly flawless discography. Let's be real.

 

I'm actually coming at this from the opposite end.

 

If somebody making art is attempting to make another human being experience what they intended or empathise from their viewpoint, that's what I want to attempt to do; no matter how flawed their attempts may be.

 

It's not about flawlessness. It's about the flaws and why they are interesting.

 

Why delete something because it sounds silly? What's wrong with silly?

What's wrong with dated?

 

Sometimes the flaws aren't really interesting, I guess. I don't what to say. To me, it's like when someone is singing, and they hit a glaringly dissonant note, and it sounds awful to your ear. At the end of the day, as someone who makes music, it's all about the result for me. Often times, with a lot of experimental music/sound art, for example, there's too much pretense behind the intent/concept and the process, and the result doesn't live up to it. There are albums where I, unfortunately, don't enjoy every single track, and I don't feel the need to subject myself to it just because it's there.

It's also hard to speak about intent, when, in a lot cases, we're not aware of what that is; this information is not supplied in every interview and press release. Assuming doesn't really get us anywhere. I'm not saying things should be perfect.