I think it might be like reading a series of books out of order, say Harry Potter or Game of Thrones. You can do it as each book is able to stand alone, but you're going to miss some key information or not appreciate it to its full potential that first time through. Some musical artists also have a larger story or creative arc or message which is lost if you do it out of order (like rock operas or I'm betting Rush albums). So I tend to follow your strategy of accompanying the creator on the intended journey the first time through, then go off on different paths and do what I wish with the individual songs after that.
Re: Valerie and Midnight Train. I recently made a similar serendipitous discovery with Mitski's "I'm Your Man" followed by David Byrne's "I Know Sometimes a Man Is Wrong". Add 10 to 12 seconds of crossfade, and it's magical.
I have my whole music library on a microSD card in my phone (OK, it's probably not as big as your library, but on the other hand, those SD cards hold a LOT!)
In the car I always listen on Shuffle. I like having a Chopin Prelude follow a Marty Robbins tune which follows a Django Reinhardt which follows a Little Feat.
Maybe not to everyone's taste, but even in the old days, few if any radio stations would do anything like this.
Whenever an artist has a new album out I'll attempt to listen to it according to the track list. After that first listen I'll put the songs I like best in a special Spotify playlist. I may return to the others if my original choices have fared well in my listening. If not, I may never return to that album. I may be missing out on some tracks that didn't go over well the first time but that's how I roll! If I think the album has the potential for additional discovery I may also put it's entirety in a list with other recent albums and hit shuffle. I often discover some of those abandoned songs after all.
Pre-beatles albums often seem to have tracks ordered randomly, so I appreciate that modern reissues or compilations may choose to arrange the tracks in order of recording date or in some other fashion that makes more sense. It works for me - a reimagined track order probably explains why I and many others still find "new" Elvis releases appealing!
Least dynamic to most dynamic (determined by equalizer levels?)
Most unique words per second. (All we are saying is don't count the repetition for this one)
Adherence to pop song structure standards
Verse verse chorus...?
Majorest of chords to most minor (is there a scale?)
Highest ratio of nouns to verbs to lowest.
Average number of letters in words highest to lowest.
Number of additional non-Beatle musicians.
Frequency of mention by Beatles in press and individual writings. Most mentioned to least. (Is there a Beatles concordance of these sources and why not?)
4 sorts: Amount of contribution by each member, most to least. The Paul Sort, etc.
I had long knew who Tom Waits was because my older brother was a fan but I never really listened to him until I got my first real coding job working for a company that makes teach-yourself-guitar software (written in VB3 to show my age). One of the lessons was "Downtown Train" which became my goto track when working on new features.
I hated shuffle play when I first encountered it- a college friend with a 6-CD changer. Now, while it makes no sense to listen to a single album on shuffle for the reasons you mentioned, I do enjoy letting the computer randomly select from my entire collection- it often plays songs that I wouldn't think to play on my own and while sometimes the transitions are jarring it sometimes finds musical segues that are totally unexpected.
Very interesting piece, Chris.
I think it might be like reading a series of books out of order, say Harry Potter or Game of Thrones. You can do it as each book is able to stand alone, but you're going to miss some key information or not appreciate it to its full potential that first time through. Some musical artists also have a larger story or creative arc or message which is lost if you do it out of order (like rock operas or I'm betting Rush albums). So I tend to follow your strategy of accompanying the creator on the intended journey the first time through, then go off on different paths and do what I wish with the individual songs after that.
The "A Team" was also an iTunes Free Single of the Week, which is how it came to be first on my iPod in the first place!
The conspiracy runs deeper!
Re: Valerie and Midnight Train. I recently made a similar serendipitous discovery with Mitski's "I'm Your Man" followed by David Byrne's "I Know Sometimes a Man Is Wrong". Add 10 to 12 seconds of crossfade, and it's magical.
I live for those accidental connections
I have my whole music library on a microSD card in my phone (OK, it's probably not as big as your library, but on the other hand, those SD cards hold a LOT!)
In the car I always listen on Shuffle. I like having a Chopin Prelude follow a Marty Robbins tune which follows a Django Reinhardt which follows a Little Feat.
Maybe not to everyone's taste, but even in the old days, few if any radio stations would do anything like this.
I totally get what you’re saying. Sometimes weird songs work together
Yeah, it would be nice if someone actually curated a list for me, but "random" works pretty well, too!
(Plus the steering wheel has a thumb switch for "next track" if I'm not in the mood!)
Whenever an artist has a new album out I'll attempt to listen to it according to the track list. After that first listen I'll put the songs I like best in a special Spotify playlist. I may return to the others if my original choices have fared well in my listening. If not, I may never return to that album. I may be missing out on some tracks that didn't go over well the first time but that's how I roll! If I think the album has the potential for additional discovery I may also put it's entirety in a list with other recent albums and hit shuffle. I often discover some of those abandoned songs after all.
Pre-beatles albums often seem to have tracks ordered randomly, so I appreciate that modern reissues or compilations may choose to arrange the tracks in order of recording date or in some other fashion that makes more sense. It works for me - a reimagined track order probably explains why I and many others still find "new" Elvis releases appealing!
Other ways to sort
Most seconds with vocals to least.
Least dynamic to most dynamic (determined by equalizer levels?)
Most unique words per second. (All we are saying is don't count the repetition for this one)
Adherence to pop song structure standards
Verse verse chorus...?
Majorest of chords to most minor (is there a scale?)
Highest ratio of nouns to verbs to lowest.
Average number of letters in words highest to lowest.
Number of additional non-Beatle musicians.
Frequency of mention by Beatles in press and individual writings. Most mentioned to least. (Is there a Beatles concordance of these sources and why not?)
4 sorts: Amount of contribution by each member, most to least. The Paul Sort, etc.
Number of instruments.
RE: Downtown Train
I had long knew who Tom Waits was because my older brother was a fan but I never really listened to him until I got my first real coding job working for a company that makes teach-yourself-guitar software (written in VB3 to show my age). One of the lessons was "Downtown Train" which became my goto track when working on new features.
I hated shuffle play when I first encountered it- a college friend with a 6-CD changer. Now, while it makes no sense to listen to a single album on shuffle for the reasons you mentioned, I do enjoy letting the computer randomly select from my entire collection- it often plays songs that I wouldn't think to play on my own and while sometimes the transitions are jarring it sometimes finds musical segues that are totally unexpected.