Sunday, March 31, 2019

My Picks for "What’s the strongest 3-song run on an album?"


            I would not consider myself a music guy.  When I was in middle school, I took Chorus and I do have an ear for hearing and recall lyrics, but I did not get and substantive training in an instrument and did not stick with music as an extracurricular.
            I didn’t own any CD’s growing up and I still do not buy music to any level.  I think I occasionally get a copy of a video game soundtrack as a bonus item, but that is so rare as to be mythological in occurrence.
            This is all kind of moot, as today I am talking about my reaction to an AV Club article from April 2018.  The premise had to do with what is the best 3 songs back to back on any album.  I kind of hated the article, because aside from the Michael Jackson entry they start off with and the Kanye entry a little later… I had not heard of any of these songs.  I kind of know about Pearl Jam… But who the hell is Matthew Sweet?  What music nerd put this… Whatever.

Kudos to the AV Club's graphics team, this is a fun image.
            I decided to put together a few song lists that I feel represent great 3 song combos.  It was sort of a fun exercise, because I am a singles guy, so going to Wikipedia to find the track listings of albums I recall liking to pick the best 3 pack combo was a really different way to look at music.
            Who knew Albums could have such unique feels when looked at as albums as opposed to collections of singles?  Probably lots of people.

Might as well give my unasked-for opinion.

Opening to the Beatle's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

There is also the debut of the Police with Outlandos d'Amour,
2. "So Lonely"
3. "Roxanne"

I am also an angry white boy so there are 2 runs of three songs from The Eminem Show
3. "Business"

and this one from the same Eminem Show is broken up by a skit, so I don't know how that counts,
10. "Without Me"
11."Paul Rosenberg" (skit)
13. "Superman"

Anybody else like Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory?
6."Runaway"

This one is a little less remembered, but I loved the hell out of Gnarl's Barkley's St. Elsewhere,
2. "Crazy"

And before he became a public crazy person, B.o.B. had B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray,
4. "Airplanes
            (Just for the record, B.o.B. has come out a “Flat Earth Truther” and is perhaps the most famous person to have such… Beliefs?  Suspicions?  Delusions.  And he released an antisemitic diss-track aimed at Neil DeGrasse Tyson.  It is called “Flatline” and it would be catchy if it were not such toxic garbage.)

Also, if we want to make it a 5-track streak, there is the opening to the Killer's debut album Hot Fuss,

Another 5 run, CCR's side 2 of Cosmo's Factory,

            As I said, I am not a music guy.  There are better critics for music online, and I am sure that my various lists here would make a music nerd call me a pleb.  I have talked about what I like in music before, but that is just an unordered list of personal favorites.
            If you liked reading this and want to make your own list of things, do so in the comments, or put it in your own blog and post a link here.  And I mean… If you liked reading this, by all means share this with your hipster music snob friends so they can call me a piece of shit and then turn me on to “real” music.
            Or whatever.

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