One thing my experience with Rock Band made abundantly clear is that virtual guitar is the closest I will get to playing music live.  I’ve made my peace with it: I have neither the time, talent (10,000 hours to master an instrument, says Gladwell) nor the inclination (the combination of marriage, age, and income) to pursue the band lifestyle.  Though I may never play a song that rivals my favorites from that game, there is one area in which a fan such as myself can feel equal to our favorite bands: album sequencing.

Let’s say the average band of some repute releases four to eight albums.  Passionate music fans create far more mixes, be it on tape, CD, or playlist.  Here, the experience – and, unfortunately, the expertise – is on the fan’s side.

There is one golden rule to sequencing: start the album right.  This rule applies to all mixes and albums, from demo tape to drinking mix, greatest hits album to girl/guy musical love note.

Let’s ignore the increased potential for song deletion in the digital age, and instead ask a simple question: why would you not want to engage the listener immediately?  Why select a willfully difficult or pointless opening track? The truly great album openers will be memorable and maybe even foreshadow the rest of the album, but the minimum requirement of the first song is the make the listener want more.

We here at DBF perused our music collections and highlighted the most common trends for album openers. We’ve also provided examples of how well the leading song works in the context of the album, and when the tactic can go horribly awry.  Other suggestions?  Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments.

“Literal – Rock”

Rock bands who take the literal approach use the opening track either to provide context or atmosphere for the album (because it’s an experience, man) or to segway into the second song. The opening song is often an instrumental. This tactic yields a wide variety of outcomes: when done well, the song builds anticipation; when done poorly, it is utterly pointless.

Best case scenario: “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” – Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band; “Celestial Crown” – The Sword’s Age of Winters; “Hello” – Junior Senior’s Hey Hey My My Yo Yo; “Cecilia Ann” – Pixies’ Bossanova

Worst case scenario: “Pinion” – Nine Inch Nails’ Broken EP; “1984” – Van Halen’s 1984; “Horn Intro” – Modest Mouse’s Good News For People Who Love Bad News; “Writer’s Block” – Pete Bjorn and John’s Writer’s Block

“Literal – Hip Hop”

This intro is a borderline prerequisite for a hip hop album, but there are two different approaches. The shortest is often a quick prelude to the album or spoken word statement for shoutouts. The longer intro is usually a shorter intro that turns in to a song. Ideally, the beat hits right away. Like their rock brethren, hip hop intros garner the instant delete when they miss.

Best case scenario: “Intro” – Kool Keith’s Black Elvis / Lost In Space (my favorite hip hop intro of all time); “Introduction: Bow And Fire” – Blackalicious’ Blazing Arrow; “Intro (Shaolin Finger Jab) / Chamber Music” – Wu-Tang’s The W; “Daily Operation” – Gang Starr’s Daily Operation; “Contract on the World Love Jam” – Public Enemy’s Fear of a Black Planet; Against all odds, “The Chronic (intro)” – Dr. Dre’s The Chronic

Worst case scenario: “The Coming” – Busta Rhymes’ The Coming; “Lolo” – Dr. Dre’s 2001; “Baba Says Cool For Thought” – Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool; “Wu-Revolution” – Wu Tang’s Wu-Tang Forever, Disc 1 (6 minutes long!); “Bathtub” – Snoop Doggy Dogg’s Doggystyle

“Frontload”

The clear single or hit as the first song on the album.  The riskiest approach of all: it guarantees that the listener continues for at least a few more songs, but the opening track creates a lofty standard. This tactic works extremely well for EPs and bootlegs/mixtapes, where there’s a tacit agreement that anything aside from the opening song is bonus.

Best case scenario: “Smells Like Teen Spirit” – Nirvana’s Nevermind; “Waiting Room” – Fugazi’s 13 songs; “Seven Nation Army” – White Stripes’ Elephant; “Daft Punk Is Playing At My House” – LCD Soundsystem’s self titled; “Follow The Leader” – Eric B. and Rakim’s Follow The Leader

Worst cast scenario: “Blue Orchid” – White Stripes’ Get Behind Me Satan; “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song” – Flaming Lips’ At War With The Mystics; Every Suicidal Tendencies album after Join The Army; Every mid-90s alternative album that inexplicably remains in your album collection

“Punch in The Face”

An aggressive opening captures the listener’s attention immediately and makes them feel like they walked in on a band playing. This tactic is a great way to get the listener amped, but this opener could diminish other songs if the album doesn’t maintain the intense momentum.   Failure is usually not in the song itself, but in its placement as opener.  This approach is found on every hardcore album ever made.

Best case scenario: “Bring Da Ruckus” – Wu-Tang’s Enter the 36 Chambers; “Straight Outta Compton” – NWA’s Straight Outta Compton; “Blood and Thunder” – Mastodon’s Leviathan; “Fight Fire With Fire” – Metallica’s Ride The Lightning; “Skip Steps 1 & 3” – Superchunk’s No Pocky For Kitty; “Rise Above” – Black Flag’s Damaged; “Clash City Rockers” – The Clash’s self-titled; “The Hives-Declare Guerre Nucleaire” – The Hives’ Veni Vidi Vicious; “Them Bones” – Alice In Chains’ Dirt; Every Mike Patton Faith No More album

Worst case scenario: “National Hum” – Constantines’ Shine A Light; “The Great Southern Trendkill” – Pantera’s Great Southern Trendkill; “Hexagram” – Deftones’ self-titled

“Sleight of Hand”

A total anomaly, and in no way prepares the listener for the tone of the album.  It may not ruin an album, but certainly starts it in the wrong way.   I will never understand this one.

Best case scenario: May not exist

Worst case scenario: “Clap Your Hands!” – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah self titled (this is an epic failure); “Race You” – Figurines’ Skeleton; “Next Exit” – Interpol’s Antics

“Representative”

The song serves as a microcosm for the album. A song that you could play for anybody and say, “If you like this, you’ll like the album.” When it works, nothing sets the tone better.  When it fails, all the cards are on the table and the listener is bored halfway through the album.

Best case scenario: “Liquid Swords” – GZA’s Liquid Swords; “In The Meantime” – Helmet’s Meantime; “Is This It?” – The Strokes’ Is This It?; “Rusty Cage” – Soundgarden’s Badmotorfinger; “My Own Summer” – Deftones’ Around The Fur; “Formed A Band” – Art Brut’s Bang Bang Rock and Roll; “Signal And Sign” – Maximo Park’s A Certain Trigger

Worst case scenario: “The Ride of your Life” – Gift of Gab’s 4th Dimension Rocketships Going Up; “Guns Of Memorial Park” – Sparta’s Porcelain; “Dead & Bloated” – Stone Temple Pilot’s Core; “Brianstorm” – Arctic Monkeys’ Favourite Worst Nightmare

“Lend A Hand”

This is a classic maneuver of holding off on the best song, and using a good to great song as the opener. Easing in the listener to the album is a better method than the Literal Intro to achieve the same goal. If the song never moves out of second gear, it can come off as too casual and fail to elicit more than mild appreciation.  If done successfully, the lead song will eventually become a favorite song, partially due to the anticipation of the rest of the album.

Best case scenario: “Airbag” – Radiohead’s OK Computer; “Don’t Make Me a Target” – Spoon’s Ga x5; “Once” – Pearl Jam’s Ten; “My Ambitionz Az A Ridah” – 2 Pac’s All Eyez on Me (Disc 1); “Silence Kit” – Pavement’s Crooked Rain x2; “Excursions” – Tribe Called Quest’s Low End Theory; “Beetlebum” – Blur’s self-titled; “Jacqueline” – Franz Ferdinand’s self-titled; “Kissing The Lipless” – Shins’ Chutes Too Narrow; “King Back” – T.I.’s King; “The Ruler’s Back” – Jay-Z’s Blueprint

Worst case scenario: “Packt Like Sardines In A Crushed Tin Box” – Radiohead’s Amnesiac; “We Dance” – Pavement’s Wowee Zowee; “The Beast and Dragon, Adored” – Spoon’s Gimme Fiction; “Our Faces Split the Coast In Half” – Broken Social Scene’s self-titled

Thanks to Flickr user ardie96750 for the photo

BVaz:
Chuck is pretty much dead on here with the way that these songs can kick off an album in either the right or the wrong way, and we see some great examples this year in every category, including the “Literal-Rock” intro of “Cover Me Slowly” on Deerhunter’s Microcastle, a “Frontload” with “Time To Pretend” on MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular (though I know some DBFers will disagree with me on that), a “Representative” with “Modern Leper” on Frightened Rabbit’s Midnight Organ Fight as well as a brilliant “Lend a Hand” intro of “Silence” on Portishead’s Third. Rock may progress and head in new directions, but a lot of these conventions remain today, and it’s interesting to go back and note that on even the newest releases.

The other thing I have noted in culling through my musical back catalog on this topic is the prevalence and general high quality of albums that not only feature an intro in the “Lend a Hand”, “Punch in the Face” or “Representative” category, but also how much more memorable some of them are when they smack you upside the head with a killer drum-only or drum-focused intro. A supreme example is “I Am One” on the Smashing Pumpkins’ Gish, but other brilliant examples that come to mind are of course “Cherub Rock” on the Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream, “Testify” on Rage Against the Machine’s Battle of Los Angeles (”Punch in the Face”-tastic, coincidentally also by far the concert intro of the year with their set at Lollapalooza) and the incredible “15 Step” on Radiohead’s In Rainbows in addition to Chuck’s mentioned “Airbag” (drum-heavy) and of course “Planet Telex” on The Bends, as well as the aforementioned “Silence” on Portishead’s Third. A perfectly executed drum intro setting the tone and the beat on a great album can be a perfect leap into the upper echelons of album greatness, getting your head bobbing and giving a sense of “awww shit mofos here we go!” Those come to mind immediately but if anyone has further thoughts leave in the comments, obviously there are great examples I am forgetting.

Daigle:
Looking through my library, it is almost surprising how often the Sleight of Hand tactic is used to almost exclusively negative effect, and I have a hard time understanding about many bands’ use of Sleight of Hand at all. Chuck has a great example with Clap Your Hands! on Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, which song is a total disaster and completely unindicative of the awesomeness of the rest of the album. I can also think of other notable examples of instances where this simply does not work in Okkervil River’s The Stage Names (pointless instrumental track) and in British Sea Power’s The Decline of British Sea Power (inexplicable horrendous waste of time track).

I honestly cannot understand why any of these bands think this is a good idea. It’s possible they believed they were putting out some kind of remarkable concept album, or that they really did want to really shake things up with the first track. Either way, I cannot think of many everyday examples where Sleight of Hand makes the listener either enjoy the album more, or make anyone more impressed with the final product. Sure, there are some fantastic albums where this works, but those are in the vast minority. It seems like a misfire in almost every example and most would be served by simply deleting these bizarre additions which, in many cases, simply feel like tacked on afterthoughts with no real purpose.

I understand that most bands can’t blow listeners out of the water as The White Stripes did with Seven Nation Army or like Bloc Party with Like Eating Glass. I just wish they would stop putting on songs like Horn Intro.

Superchunk – Skip Steps 1 & 3 – From No Pocky for Kitty
Maximo Park – Signal and Sign – From A Certain Trigger
LCD Soundsystem – Daft Punk Is Playing At My House – From LCD Soundsystem
Kool Keith – Intro – From Black Elvis/Lost in Space
Franz Ferdinand – Jacqueline – From Franz Ferdinand
Soundgarden – Rusty Cage – From Badmotorfinger