Submitted by AfroYoda t3_125sish in Music

Lately I've been thinking a lot about albums (whether they be generally perceived as terrible, great or indeed anywhere in-between) that would be considered much stronger if a specific track or two were to be removed from them. I suppose most examples would simply be songs seen as a stinkers, but it may also be that the pacing or vibe of an album would be aided by the trimming of its track-list. Part of why this is on my mind is that I feel a lot of albums I've listened to recently have been pretty decent and/but consistently so, making it difficult to imagine improving the album without some sort of overhaul. ANYWAY, any examples of albums that would/could be improved by the removal of one or two songs? Always enjoy hearing about people's experiences with music :)

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Iron13lood t1_je5nmp4 wrote

Not that I have anything against Starfuckers, but it feels out of place on The Fragile. Every other track flows well on the entire album except that one track.

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Drunken-dreamer87 t1_je5nt69 wrote

Stadium Arcadium is actually quite good, if you cut it down to 10 tracks.

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matt_ramen t1_je5oetl wrote

Dizzy Miss Lizzy shouldn't have been on Help.

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nik15 t1_je5q6el wrote

Time II if you remove the four minute intro track.

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top-shop-tyrant t1_je5qeg1 wrote

I feel each Lana Del Rey album would benefit from cutting out a couple of songs. I love her and always will, but it's tough to get through any album that's over an hour long unless it's got some REAL variety on it. And I feel each album has a chunk of 2-3 songs in a row that sound pretty much the same.

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RPGb46 t1_je5qvdp wrote

Pause 4 Porno on 2001. As far as hip hop skits go, there's almost nothing of value there and god forbid anybody catches you listening to it. Do what I did and create a custom playlist substituting the normal version for the instrumental only version and enjoy the nice little groove that sits underneath it all.

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narcoticotter t1_je5tk8e wrote

Blur - Think Tank would be greatly improved without "Crazy Beat" . It works completely against the atmosphere from the other songs. Also, it's obnoxious trash.

The Proclaimers - Sunshine on Leith us dragged down by the kitsch vomit "My Old Friend the Blues"

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yeticomeout t1_je5tsu8 wrote

Jason Isbells “super 8” from his masterpiece album “southeastern”. That song just comes out of left field and takes you away from the rest of the album. We used to always rush to change it when it came on.

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Airwolf_BDTW t1_je5u343 wrote

Sandinista! could be an INCREDIBLE single album or even a very good double album.

I enjoy that it is a sprawling mess as it is--it truly contains multitudes--but if the goal is to make it tight and untouchable, a fair bit of editing is required.

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top-shop-tyrant t1_je5uvq0 wrote

Modest Mouse. I love every song, but their albums are SO long and the choice of track list doesn't really flow cohesively. They're one of my favorite bands, but by the time the album is over, the last 5 songs have all sounded the same and I'm zoned out

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Blastosist t1_je5v524 wrote

All subsequent re-issues of the Who Live at Leeds don’t compare to the original version which had only 6 tracks.

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ToxicAdamm t1_je5vamq wrote

Paramore's After Laughter is a perfect album except for 'No Friend (of Mine)'.

It's not a bad song, just nowhere near the level of the other songs.

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SleeptalkerOfficial t1_je5w07q wrote

Doolittle Is my favorite album by the Pixies, but I always hated No 13. It flows perfectly except for that one.

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Shmezbot t1_je5xor6 wrote

Use Your Illusion II by Guns N' Roses, would be improved by dropping the final track, "My World". That song is so terrible and grating, one of the few that had me leaping for the stop button on my CD player, back in the day.

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JaymesGrl t1_je5zr8i wrote

The bonus tracks added to the CD version of Slayer's Reign In Blood dilute the intensity of the original tracklisting and are best skipped.

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Valuable_Law_6890 t1_je6064x wrote

I realize this may be blasphemy but I want a copy of Zeppelin 4 without Stairway and a copy of Queens News of the World without We will Rock You

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JAmBuRriT0 t1_je61ul8 wrote

I always thought Have A Cigar didn't belong on Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here album. Great song in its own right, but the rest of the album was this trippy, spacy thing. And Have A Cigar just has this totally different feel to it.

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CountGrande t1_je62cge wrote

OK Computer by Radiohead is basically perfect if you get rid of "Fitter Happier"

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onelittleworld t1_je63egm wrote

Not necessarily a removal, per se... but a relocation of "Jimmy Jazz" on London Calling would help it immensely. You start off with the incredible one-two punch of the title track plus "Brand New Cadillac"... and then this daffy, droopy little number that stops the momentum cold.

I'd move it to just after "The Card Cheat".

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No_Strike620 t1_je6462z wrote

Use your illusions should have been one album if they had cut out the fat

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rmarkmatthews t1_je64mtt wrote

Diver Down is widely considered to be Van Halen’s worst album (maybe second after III), but if you remove all the covers it’s actually a pretty kick ass EP.

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futanari_kaisa t1_je64u49 wrote

Get rid of Dawn Patrol and Rust in Peace is actually perfect.

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VrinTheTerrible t1_je67aj6 wrote

Houses of the Holy - Led Zeppelin

Remove The Crunge, and it's the greatest album of all time

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homeless_gorilla t1_je67opn wrote

Ben Howard’s I Forget Where We Were is a great album, but She Treats Me Well just doesn’t fit with the rest of the album at all

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NawBroSpaceMarine t1_je67tny wrote

I love Dirt and Superunknown but….

Get rid of Half and Kickstand and Superunknown would be a perfect 10. Likewise get rid of Godsmack and Hate To Feel and Dirt would be a perfect 10.

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Moon_Machine24 t1_je6997k wrote

Hate to say it but Rumours by Fleetwood Mac would be a 10/10 if “Oh Daddy” wasn’t there

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BlitheringEediot t1_je69m32 wrote

The ultimate example of this endeavor is removing "Mother" from The Police's "Synchronicity". Instantly, the album goes from "A" to "A+".

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TyroneEarl t1_je6ae6k wrote

Remove "Been Caught Stealing" from Ritual.

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fodahmania t1_je6eise wrote

I’m not trying to change your opinion, but Diver Down is one of my favorite Van Halen albums! It’s such a fucking massive hubris project and if you approach it as a pile of ego and cocaine, then, I don’t know, it makes sense and if that then wins you over, it’s such a hilarious rollercoaster ride of a record. I mean, for me, I have to approach all of the Van Halen records (the first six, whatever happens after 1984 never happened in my book) with a certain amount of role playing to really allow them to enter my mind or vice versa, and that being said, the more what the hell are they even thinking right now, the better.

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Squand0r t1_je6eqk8 wrote

Fleetwood Mac's Greatest Hits, minus "Tusk"

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S_He-It t1_je6fhm4 wrote

Two of my favorite albums are by the Smashing Pumpkins:

Gish - remove Tristessa and Daydream

Siamese Dream - remove Disarm, Sweet Sweet and Luna

Now you have two absolutely perfect albums from beginning to end!

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growgillson78 t1_je6gh4g wrote

The Stooges Fun House becomes the greatest rock and roll album of all time if you delete Dirt and LA Blues

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mellamosatan t1_je6gjvj wrote

I've always thought Yankee Hotel Foxtrot should end on Poor Places and not Reservations. Just feels so weird. The perfect ending on the second to last song in to a sad ballad. Why?

Nothing against reservations. Put somewhere else on the album, just swap it with Poor Places. I don't really care.

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Alessio875 t1_je6gzk3 wrote

The white album if you removed wild honey pie and revolution 9

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texaco87 t1_je6ha59 wrote

Pet Sounds without Sloop John B

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PeelThePaint t1_je6ho9x wrote

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada would be better without the first two tracks. Come at me, post-rock fans.

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TheDeadlySquid t1_je6hyr7 wrote

RHCP - Californication less Porcelain, ugh gotta skip it every time, anybody else?

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javeryh t1_je6i36d wrote

Pretty much any double album can be trimmed down to a regular length album and be much better. Even the classics like The Wall or Mellon Collie, etc. would be better off as something shorter.

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StillSleepingMusic t1_je6i6nf wrote

Getting rid of Six Shooter from the Songs For the Deaf album by Queens of the Stone Age. I love that album, but goddamn is that song just annoying.

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PeelThePaint t1_je6i882 wrote

They very intentionally put out the strongest (in a pop sense) songs as singles instead of album tracks. They didn't have the album-oriented "too cool for singles/shuffle" mentality a lot of music fans have these days.

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CreepyBlackDude t1_je6ih88 wrote

The latter 8-10 minutes of "Moonchild" from King Crimson's In The Court of the Crimson King

Perhaps I don't get it. I've tried. But it's 10 actual minutes of what sounds like random tapping and noodling on various instruments without form or rhythm or reason. Perhaps if it were paired with a visual element it would make sense to me...but as it is, I let it play for perhaps a minute or two after the lyrics end and just move on to the finale.

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bobpercent t1_je6immo wrote

Oh dang I always look forward to that track when I do a full album listen through. But itself I think it's just ok, but I love how it fits into the full album especially right before Tell Me How.

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Viper67857 t1_je6ks8l wrote

I owned both Use Your Illusions back when people actually had CD players, and listened to them no telling how many times, yet I don't even recall that song existing. Maybe it was so bad I blocked it from my memory, or maybe after the first listen I just knew not to play the last track, but that was almost 30 years ago so who knows?

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Category3Water t1_je6m5hy wrote

I feel that’s what you’re supposed to do with all bonus tracks. They’re just there so they can re-release the CD or to make a higher price worth it as a deluxe edition or a foreign import.

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Wpgjetsfan19 t1_je6mysk wrote

Remove all the small things and Adams song from Enema of the State

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Rip_and_Tear_Slayer t1_je6n7fr wrote

Did you know that if you take a Nickleback CD and remove all the songs it sounds better?

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whollybananas t1_je6ncms wrote

Metallica - kill'em all

Anesthesia (pulling teeth) should have been a b side on a single or something. It ruins the flow. I skip it every time.

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Category3Water t1_je6ngri wrote

To me the album is one of the best things released in the 90s until Porcelain. From there, it sort of meanders towards the end. Then again, maybe Porcelain is just so boring it just made me feel almost everything after was mediocre. I admit after my first few listens to the album, I’d just go back to the beginning after Easily. Might stop by Right on Time.

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admire816 t1_je6o8dk wrote

Came here for this. It’s the perfect album if that song is removed. Don’t know if it’s true but someone commented once that Izzy was livid about this song appearing on the album as Axl had snuck it on there last minute without band approval.

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BlunderFunk t1_je6oh7g wrote

Pearl Jam - Vitalogy, Bugs is such a wtf is this doing on the album. I cannot listen to this record front to back as I always skip this song.

The Police - Synchronicity, Mother, just…why?

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CoresNomes t1_je6ua3b wrote

The Smiths - Meat is Murder.

Remove the title track and it’s a perfect album.

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police-ical t1_je70pjs wrote

Superb song, but I'm reluctantly in agreement with Mick et al. that on a two-side LP there just wasn't a good spot for it that would balance side length as well as flow of fast vs. slow songs. It's that kind of higher-level arranging that makes 'Rumours' even more than the sum of its parts.

Personally, I just wait a minute after "Gold Dust Woman" then put on the single of "Silver Springs" as a graceful coda to the album.

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matthewniino t1_je71ga2 wrote

MMLP2 by Eminem would be significantly improved by the removal of Stronger Than I Was and Asshole.

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Bugslugs47 t1_je78l22 wrote

I have no problem removing duff tracks. I rip my CD’s to 320kbps, load them on the iPod and then give each song a rating while listening to them. All the tracks with one star get removed. There was one album by Elbow where I removed all the tracks but one - lol. Getting all my CD’s at thrift shops makes life easier.

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beep-bloop-beep t1_je79c71 wrote

wasn't it that the label wanted them to make an album and they were kind of like "eh, whatever?" and finished it kind of quickly. I love the covers though, even if it's all over the place.

Remove one? Big Bad Bill maybe, maybe not, but it's very very essense-of-Roth and has their dad on clarinet. That's pretty human and awesome.

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TheBoss2777 t1_je7f5zk wrote

Remove In Bloom from Nevermind. Radio always used to play it made me think I hated Nirvana, then I listened to the rest of the album turns out I love Nirvana just really hate that song

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DanglyPants t1_je7hjdw wrote

Yeah BSSM is my favorite but I love the chilli peppers during the stadium arcadium era. Tons of good b sides. I had an album on my iPod back then called Mars and it had them all together. So many gems I wish it all could have been a 8-12 song album.

I tried getting back into them last summer when I saw them live and idk. It’s not the same. You might be right

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Tranquility-Android t1_je7hng0 wrote

Nevermind by Nirvana

Hold on hold on put down your pitch forks. I just wish Endless, Nameless wasn’t on it. Something in the Way would be a perfect closer but that’s ruined by the too long and overly aggressive Endless, Nameless.

First Impressions of Earth by The Strokes

is super bloated with way too many mediocre tracks

Favorite Worst Nightmare by Arctic Monkeys

This would have been a better EP than an album. D is for Dangerous, House is a Circus, If You Were there Beware, the Bad Thing, and Old Yellow Bricks could all be left off and the remaining seven songs would be an amazing Ep or short album but these other songs really drag it down and need more time in the oven

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AdmiralPrinny t1_je7lxc2 wrote

Coheed's Vaxis I, that album had way too many songs, the follow up they figured it out

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No-Enthusiasm3529 t1_je7ph5k wrote

ABSOLUTELY. Dude, “the Lonesome crowded west” by Modest Mouse would be 100 times better without the third track “ convenient parking” I swear it’s such a horrible sounding song, but the rest of the album is gold! What are y’all think anyone else thought the same thing?

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OddPerspective9833 t1_je7tggi wrote

If you removed Ricochet from Bowie's Let's Dance, every track would be an absolute banger

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hamelbadger t1_je7tzrt wrote

I still think Pink Floyd's Meddle is a masterpiece, but I don't need to hear Seamus anymore.

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OddPerspective9833 t1_je7u4iy wrote

Hot Fuss would be way better without All These Things That I've Done, because that song is the worst

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obik501 t1_je83w8g wrote

KISS - Love Gun ---- Drop 'Then She Kissed Me'... Add 'Rocket Ride'...

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17miab t1_je856ln wrote

Interesting... I hear your logic but also I love that song - I was thinking "welcome to the machine" is a blemish on that album. It's a dreary, silly song without much hook...

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gwm3d t1_je88h13 wrote

Kyuss - Lick Doo from Welcome to Sky Valley

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[deleted] t1_je89tul wrote

Dark Side of the Moon - Time

or just get rid of the damn alarm clock. It's woken me up so many times.

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night_dude t1_je8pol4 wrote

Haha, I love that song! But only as a pallet cleanser, I would never listen to it outside of the album. I have a soft spot for weird interlude songs ever since I heard MR HAAAAAAAAHN on Hybrid Theory.

Either way, it's good to see some love for After Laughter. Such a great album. I never thought Paramore would be better genre chameleons than Fall Out Boy (whose newer stuff I find unlistenable) but they really nailed it.

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AdventureSphere t1_je8r5qf wrote

Abbey Road is pretty damn close to perfect if you cut Maxwell's Silver Hammer.

That album was otherwise Paul's high water mark for his entire career -- the medley on side two, Oh! Darling, and his stupendous basswork on the first two songs. But then there's Maxwell's fucking Hammer sitting in the middle of side one like a big steaming turd.

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darylkakariki t1_je8y4k5 wrote

"The Boy With The Arab Strap" by Belle and Sebastian

It would be MUCH better minus the Stevie Jackson songs, Seymour Stein and Chikfactor.

The same could be said for "Fold your hands child, You walk like a peasant"

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terryjuicelawson t1_je96th7 wrote

In hindsight they shouldn't have been so strict having singles separate to albums. But the 45rpm single was a big deal then, they didn't want people to feel ripped off with 4 singles per album and they could still churn them out. Just too many weak covers on the early albums for me, and it would work better as a historical document having them on there.

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AfroYoda OP t1_je96zm3 wrote

Loving reading through all these suggestions, quite a few I definitely agree with so far. I aim to listen through the ones I don't yet have an opinion on, see if I can hear what you guys are saying :) May as well throw in an example myself, I personally believe that Blur's 2015 comeback album The Magic Whip is pretty decent already but would be markedly improved by removing New World Towers and Ice Cream Man. Not that they're horrible songs, but the record is really bloated and frontloading the album with 2 relatively uninteresting plodders makes it feel like you might be in for a bit of a slog. Plenty of great stuff within the rest of the album.

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terryjuicelawson t1_je97b1u wrote

It is the end of side 6(!) that does it for me. It has kids singing and dub versions that aren't very interesting at all. I quite like how sprawling it is, outliers like Lose this Skin hidden away, but I don't like pure throwaway.

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Floodzie t1_je9dduf wrote

Tóg É Go Bog É, by Kíla:

The Siege of Carrickfinn International Airport is very much the weakest song on an album of absolute bangers.

Still the best album out of Ireland in the 1990s, no contest.

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Floodzie t1_je9dz2x wrote

I agree. I think because the way the turntable needle slows down as you get closer to the centre of the record, bands avoided anything with lots of layers as the last song on each side (slower needle, lower quality audio). FM we’re always better with a big sound and, with few exceptions, their stripped down songs weren’t really up to the same standard.

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NotOK1955 t1_je9ioo5 wrote

IMHO, Jackson Browne’s near-perfect 1976 album “The Pretender” has a speed-bump with “Linda Paloma”, a beautiful but jarring diversion to the overall flow with its Spanish-influenced sound that just sounds odd.

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real_horse_magic t1_je9tglj wrote

Radiohead’s Hail To The Thief could lose a couple tracks and be a much more focused and concise experience.

Now which tracks? that’s an argument for another sub

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S_He-It t1_jebhgh9 wrote

I feel that way about Octopus’ Garden, and will sometimes skip it along with Maxwell’s Stupid Hammer.

Now Octopus is Ringo and I love him so I can forgive him for it because it’s cute like he is.

But I can NEVER forgive Paul for Maxwell!

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iknowyeahlike t1_jedwpe7 wrote

Here’s my attempt. Takes a while to listen to a 2½ hour long album :) This selection would fit on a single CD. In fairness to the album, there are no duds in there. All the tracks are between 6-8/10, so I wouldn’t object to anyone else’s selections.

Dani California 4:42 Slow (Hey Oh) 5:34 Charlie 4:37 Stadium Arcadium 5:15 Torture Me 3:44 Strip My Mind 4:19 Warlocks 3:25 C’mon Girl 3:48 Tell Me Baby 4:07 21st Century 4:22 Readymade 4:30 Animal Bar 5:24 So Much I 3:44 We Believe 3:36 Turn It Again 6:06

Total Run Time 67:10

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HeywoodPeace t1_jefk9qn wrote

The Doors 1st album is soooo close to being a perfect album......but then there's 20th Century Fox.

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HeywoodPeace t1_jegqm4y wrote

Seamus is just a 12 bar blues that isn't very creative, but doesn't bother me at all. San Tropez, however, is the absolute worst song in the band's entire catalog...yes worse than A Spanish Piece and Absolutely Curtains. Corny lyrics, weird lounge jazz music...epic fail. Even Walk With Me Sidney is a better song

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