Monday, September 8, 2014

Records that I like best in an abridged form

There are some albums that I really like, but I have difficulty with listening to in their original form. I have to abridge them some way in order to fully enjoy them. 

Here are a few to start:


Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Elton John

     If I listen to it on CD, I program out Jamaican Jerk-off and Dirty Little Girl, and I like the album much better that way. I find those two songs at the very least mildly offensive, and sometimes so much so that I'm embarrassed they were included on this otherwise great double record.


The First Day
Sylvian & Fripp

     I love this record, but I have to say that by the time I get to the last track, Fripp's soundscape piece, Bringing Down The Light, I don't have the patience to listen through to the end. If I'm listening on my i-Phone, I put that track in with some of their singles' bonus tracks and create a bonus mini-album to listen to separately.


Unlimited Edition
Can

     This CD gathered tracks unreleased up until 1974, and called Limited Edition, together with (more) previously unreleased stuff, thus expanding the idea of the earlier vinyl release. It makes for an extremely long listen, some of it very ambient and audio veritè (especially the almost 19 minute track Cutaway). I have, in the past, made my own edits to that track, cutting away (as the track's own title suggests) the more tedious parts. Usually I just program my own custom version of the album, leaving out Cutaway and, sometimes, certain other tracks.