Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Three songs in a row on one album that are amazing

So I was listening to Thriller by Michael Jackson a little while back, because it's awesome, and I realized that, in succession, are the songs "Thriller," "Beat It," and "Billie Jean." Now, those are three fucking awesome songs in a row. Really, really great, amazing songs. So I got to thinking about other three song sets, on one album, that really kill. Here's what I came up with:

Thriller/Beat It/Billie Jean (Michael Jackson’s Thriller)

Without MSG I Am Nothing/That Man Will Not Hang/She Will Only Bring You Happiness (mclusky’s The Difference Between You & Me is That I’m Not On Fire)

Exit Music (For A Film)/Let Down/Karma Police (Radiohead’s OK Computer)

Cashout/Full Disclosure/Epic Problem (Fugazi’s The Argument)

Straight American Slave/Carne Voodoo/White Belt (Rocket From the Crypt’s Group Sounds)

I Am the Walrus/Hello Goodbye/Strawberry Fields (The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour (This one was hard, because after "Strawberry Fields" was "Penny Lane," and I had to pick three of the four. Could have gone either way.))

North American Scum/Someone Great/All My Friends (LCD Soundsystem’s Sounds of Silver)

Shine a Light/Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts/I’ll Believe in Anything (Wolf Parade’s Apologies to the Queen Mary)

Synchronicity II/Every Breath You Take/King of Pain (The Police’s Synchronicity)

Begin the Begin/These Days/Fall on Me (R.E.M.’s Life’s Rich Pageant)

Interestingly enough, only a few of these are the first three tracks on the album. If you count the Fugazi one (the first track on that record is 30 seconds of noise; "Cashout" is track 2), four of the sequences on this list start the album. Out of ten. I'd have guessed more. Of course, following Elvis Costello's advice of skipping to track four when in doubt, I suppose the 1-2-3 thing wouldn't work so well. For the record, not counting the Fugazi one, three of these sequences involve track four of the album.

So that's what I got so far. I'm sure I'm missing something - a LOT of things - but I tried to keep it tight. You could probably drop the Rocket songs, maybe the R.E.M. songs (but probably would keep those), possibly the Fugazi songs, too. Who am I to say? I'm just an idiot with too much free time. Anything you know I'm missing?

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