bonus tracks

[low_delta]

You know something I hate? Bonus tracks on CDs. They make it sound like it's supposed to be some great thing, like a... bonus or something. Usually, it's a song that didn't make the cut, that the band didn't want to put on the CD. So why do we get them? Someobdy at the label thinks it will sell more records. Either they want to make the record longer, so people think they're getting their money's worth, or they want to be able to put a sticker on the packaging, making it sound like the customer is getting a better deal. Doing this to a brand new record is just dumb, since, like I said, if the songs should have been there in the first place, it would have been. What is annoying is when bonus tracks are added to new releases of previous recordings. I'm sure most people are happy to hear new songs, but I don't want to hear them on my old familiar records, for the same reason - the artist didn't intend for them to be there.

Here's what bugs me the most: the added songs disrupt the continuity of the album.

Let me give you an example. All of Patti Smith's records were remastered and repackaged for CD, in 1996, and on each one, there is a bonus track or two. Her first album, Horses, ends with the soft song, "Elegy." That song just takes you away. sometimes I even fall asleep to it. How nice it would be if the record ended there... like it used to. But no, what happens next. A loud and raucous punk version of "My Generation." "We don't need your fuckin' shit! Hope I die because of it!" Oh yeah. That's just what you need to snap you back to life after that boring old "Elegy." *rolls eyes* It was a good song to hear, because it is from the time that the album was made - it was a B-side - but why couldn't they have put it somewhere else? Like on a compilation made up of all the bonus tracks they added to the remasters?

Live's Throwing Copper is one of my favorite records. It ends with a very intense song with a long, burning fade out. I feel the song for quite a while - or would, if they didn't follow it up with a very weak bonus track. Sucky songs are no bonus.

Some records add four or five songs. Many of these records are long enough. And often, these extra songs are remixes of ones that are already on the records. Why do I want to listen to them again? At least do us the favor of putting the extra songs on a separate disc, so when the original album ends, it still ends.

It's all about marketing.

Comments

[kingseyeland.livejournal.com]

I like the added tunes, but I agree that it screws up album continuity. All of my Queensryche discs have random live tracks at the end. Why not just, you know, put out a live album? (Oh wait...they have like four.) I'm glad Rush didn't fall into the same trap. Too bad Tull did. I concur that all of those bonus tracks from major artists could've been compiled into a B-sides/rarities collection instead, or at least on a bonus disc, but I guess that would cost an extra .14 a unit, and we all know record companies can't handle that.

The Killers' ONLY album is now available in two versions: one with the bonus tracks and one without. The bonus tracks are mostly mediocre.

The worst is when there's no track divider between the "last" track and the "bonus" track, so this weird, hidden track comes screaming and rumbling at you long after you thought the CD had finished. Nirvana's Nevermind is a perfect example.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

I guess it's been a while since I listened to Nevermind.

But I can think of a couple of other records that do that, and they annoy or startle me.

Rush

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

Most bonus tracks are live versions, b-sides, just-for-fun covers, or songs that were recorded but weren't good enough to make the album. Rush never did many singles, they did an album of covers, have several live albums, and everything they've made into songs have been recorded and released.

[i.livejournal.com]

most people no longer listen to whole albums. they mix and match and burn their own cds these days, so they hardly notice the discontinuity.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it's "most people," but it's certainly a mitigating factor.

[i.livejournal.com]

sorry, the younguns are the people i meant :)

[heartwork.livejournal.com]

i love that cd by live, too. there are some awesome songs on it.

re: the bonus tracks....never really thought about it.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

I love the intensity.

[sirreal13.livejournal.com]

It would be nice if more of the artists could control the repackaging of their work.

At least with DVDs, the program goes back to the menu before jumping to the extras.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

The world needs more programmable CD players. I once read a review of a CD player, that you could program what songs you did and didn't want to hear, and whenever you loaded the particular CD, it knew which songs to play. That was probably fifteen years ago, and I've never heard of that since.

[banana.livejournal.com]

DVD extras are similarly annoying.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

Yes, but at least you have to seek them out on the menu to play them.