Hidden, bonues and secret tracks...Yay or Nay? And what's your favourite one?

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PolarityManPolarityMan Frets: 7273
Are you a fan of these insights into the band or potential lost masterpieces or does 15 mins of silence for 2 mins of shitty out piss you right off?
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  • monquixotemonquixote Frets: 17485
    tFB Trader
    Hidden tracks where you get 15 minutes of silence followed by 5 minutes of "hilarious" arsing around can piss off. 

    Special editions with a couple of extra tracks that were left of the album for a very good reason can piss off.

    Remasters that just involve compressing the shit out of the album so it has no dynamic range can piss off.
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  • not_the_djnot_the_dj Frets: 7306
    There's one on David Gray's White Ladder album where you have to rewind from the start of track 1 to get to it, rather than just obviously having one stuck at the end after a load of silence.
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  • Pisses me off to be honest.  There are some good ones I can think of but why not make it accessible to listen to on demand?  I think they were of a time and a bit gimmick but in general now they seem a bit naff. 

    I also think of an album as a piece of work or statement by and artist.  Just like a book, play or film the impact the beginning and end leaves on you is important.  Bonus tracks end up a bit like them bits in films where after 10 minutes of credits rolling, most people have left the cinema and the remainder are checking their mobiles phones.  Suddenly a bonus bit pops up, you tell your mates about it in case they missed it but in truth you rarely revisit it as you feel that if it was integral to the piece you doubt they creator would run the risk of you missing it.

    My muse is not a horse and art is not a race.
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  • monquixotemonquixote Frets: 17485
    tFB Trader
    The stupidest one of all time is on "How to Make Friends and Influence People" by Terrorvision. 

    They cleverly made the first track blend into the last when you listened to it on repeat and then added a completely shit hidden track which meant that it didn't work any more.
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  • not_the_djnot_the_dj Frets: 7306
    I like the bit on Pink Floyds The Wall where the first track on LP 1 side A starts with "we came in" and the last track on LP 2 side B ends with "isn't this where"

    You have to work really quick to swap the records over on the turntable to get the full effect ;-)
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  • StageStruckStageStruck Frets: 102
    edited October 2014
    I don't mind bonus stuff, B sides, outtakes, live tracks and the likes. If however it gets in the way of a concept like the aforementioned Terrorvision album then it would be better sticking it out on an extra album/cd. I don't really like the 15 minutes of silence then a crap 1 minute arse-around type track though.
    Speaking of Pink Floyd though, I quite like the bonus on the 8 track cartridge version of Animals where Snowy White adds an extra guitar solo to Pigs On The Wing (Part 2). This was purely to pad out the 8track release and has never been officially released elsewhere

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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71951
    edited October 2014
    Hidden tracks were fun at first but quickly became an annoying cliché - especially the ones where there's a very long track with ten minutes of silence in the middle. There are a few that still 'work' as a concept, but most just spoil the flow of the album. If the extra track is good and you want to hear it, you then have to faff around finding the start of it, or just sit there for ages waiting for it to start.

    It's particularly true when you've got your iTunes library on shuffle and one of them comes on. If I can be bothered I usually split them into two separate track with an mp3 editor.

    Favourite one… this may be a surprise, but I'd go for 'Blue Flashing Light' at the end of Travis' 'The Man Who'. It's a very, very dark song and works really well hidden like that.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • The world needs to stop making fucking "exclusive" bonus tracks. Just put all the tracks on the album and sell it all over the world 'cos it's just going to find its way on to YouTube eventually anyway so why bother? 

    Plus they just piss fans off who want to have all the tracks, makes them have to buy the album twice or pirate it. So it doesn't change anything. Among the culprits: Joe Bonamassa, ZZ Top, Aerosmith... Especially when some of the 'exclusive' tracks are better than the main album. Grrr. 

    And "hidden tracks" are usually lame. There's one on Velvet Revolver's 2nd album I think and it's a waste. There's many out there.

    Live tracks are OK. 

    Bonus remasters - boring.

    Oh and the interviews on Stevie Ray Vaughan reissues? Please... no... :( Why?! 
    Music the great communicator, use two sticks to make it in the nature - a music reviews blog: http://usetwosticks.wordpress.com/
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  • dafuzzdafuzz Frets: 1522

    [Hidden track] Talihina Sky off Kings Of Leon's first album is my favourite track of theirs ever

    I used to like hidden songs, but it's a pita ripping albums to mp3 and finding out the last track is 15 minutes long, and you have to edit it down manually to two seperate tracks - still, that's what I do

    iirc Ash had a hidden track that was them throwing up in the studio after a night out. Bleurgh

    'Bonus Tracks' are a pet hate - you buy an album and it comes out in Japan with extra songs. I just torrent these.

    All practice and no theory
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  • smigeonsmigeon Frets: 282
    Showing my age, but my favourite was the trailer for Exile on Main Street (Stones) that came free with NME in (I guess) 1972. It was one of those thin floppy records that was stuck to the front cover. Was based on a nice live blues vamp of Mick singing with a piano, and led into scratchy extracts from some of the best Exile songs like Shine a Light and Tumbling Dice. At the time I lurved it! 

    "It's on Main Street, the strange street you walk down..."
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71951
    The world needs to stop making fucking "exclusive" bonus tracks. Just put all the tracks on the album and sell it all over the world 'cos it's just going to find its way on to YouTube eventually anyway so why bother? 

    Plus they just piss fans off who want to have all the tracks, makes them have to buy the album twice or pirate it. So it doesn't change anything. Among the culprits: Joe Bonamassa, ZZ Top, Aerosmith... Especially when some of the 'exclusive' tracks are better than the main album. Grrr.
    I completely agree with this. The higher-priced 'Deluxe' versions are just stupid. You want me to pay an extra £3 for two or three more tracks, which may or may not have been good enough to be included in the 'normal' album, and/or remixes of tracks that are on it anyway? If they're actually better they should have been on the main album.

    The extra tracks are usually available on YouTube within days too, rather than 'eventually'.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • underdogunderdog Frets: 8334
    I think Cold Desert was a hidden track on Kings of Leon CD and is quite an excellent song. Also the one at the end of Parachutes by Coldplay was a good track.

    My problem is that my car music is bluetoothed from my phone on shuffle so it's annoying that there's a huge silence so end up skipping and missing the track anyway.
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  • To me, a hidden/bonus track needs to one which is a great song, but not necessarily in-keeping with the rest of the album; something a little different. Like this one:



    Interestingly, it's actually the title track of the album.
    <space for hire>
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  • what about the third track on Matching Tie and Handkerchief?
    "Working" software has only unobserved bugs. (Parroty Error: Pieces of Nine! Pieces of Nine!)
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  • Paul_CPaul_C Frets: 7670
    I quite like this



    I've got both the Travis and Terrorvision albums, not sure I've heard either secret tracks, so I shall have to dig out the CDs and see :)
    "I'll probably be in the bins at Newport Pagnell services."  fretmeister
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