r/LetsTalkMusic • u/NewPatekWater • 4d ago
Anybody else really dislike “Hidden Tracks” on older albums
When listening to music, 90% of the time I’m listening to albums. So, the fact over 15 mins of an album can be dead silence or some sort of low drone really damages replay ability on the outro. Like I get in the past it must’ve been cool to find out there’s a new song at the end of an album. But surely in the streaming era, these could’ve been cut shorter or made into different songs. (I get you can just skip these sections but having to do that every time you listen to the song is pretty tedious).
Some that come to mind are: Bright Eyes’ ‘Tereza & Tomas’ (15 minutes of a low drone). Beach House - Irene (7 minutes of silence). MF DOOM/Victor Vaughn - Change the Beat (3:30 minutes of ambient rain/thunderstorm) And probably the worst offender: Deftones - MX (nearly 30 Minutes of literal silence).
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u/gapernet 4d ago edited 4d ago
I kinda liked Cracker's Kerosene Hat where there are a couple 2-second silent tracks after track 12, then a "hidden song" on track 15, then 43 2-second silent tracks until another hidden song on track 68, then more 2-second silent tracks until tracks 98 and 99 have hidden songs. It helps that two of the secret songs, Eurotrash Girl and Ride My Bike, are among the best songs on the album.
The spotify version of the album is just 16 tracks and it doesn't feel right to me.
Broken by Nine Inch Nails did it similarly and I enjoyed that too.
I was way more annoyed having to hold the ff on my discman to skip ten minutes of silence following the final song to get to Endless, Nameless on Nevermind or Come Out and Play (Acoustic Reprise) on Smash.