6 Albums Divided Into Two Distinct Halves: The Beatles, David Bowie, and more

Before the invention of CDs, artists had to sequence their albums with consideration to the two sides of a record, meaning that each half of the album had to flow and feel complete on its own. This resulted in many albums where the two sides are quite different from one another. Here are six excellent albums that are divided into two distinct halves.

1. Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home (1965)

When 1965 rolled around, Bob Dylan had grown tired of the folk scene he had come up in, and wanted to experiment with different styles of songwriting and performance, much to the chagrin of his audience. His lyrics were becoming less political and more surreal, and most horrifying of all, he was playing with an electric backing band. Dylan's album Bringing It All Back Home eased his audience into his new electric sound by splitting the album into two halves: side A contained his electric songs, while side B contained his more familiar acoustic sound.

NOTE: The studio versions of Dylan's songs are difficult to find on Youtube, so here's a clip from the Dylan documentary Don't Look Back featuring "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and a live performance of "Mr. Tambourine Man," both from Bringing It All Back Home.

2. The Beatles - Abbey Road (1969)

Since the Beatles knew that Abbey Road would be its last album, John Lennon and Paul McCartney treated the album's sessions as a sort of liquidation for their songs: everything had to go. This resulted in the album's famous medley, in which Lennon and McCartney strung together some of their unfinished songs to create a single, 16-minute piece of music for the LP's second side.

3. David Bowie - Low (1977)

David Bowie is famous for constantly changing up his image and sound, and 1977 marked the beginning of his most experimental phase: the "Berlin Trilogy." The first album of this trilogy was Low, which was heavily influenced by the ambient, electronic sound of experimental German bands like Kraftwerk and Neu! The first side of the album features seven pop-influenced but still sonically challenging songs, while the album's second side features four ambient tracks, created with the help of Brian Eno.

4. Kate Bush - Hounds of Love (1985)

Much like David Bowie, Kate Bush has both pop instincts and experimental instincts in her songwriting, and her classic Hounds of Love album is the perfect melding of both. The album's first side contains five unrelated pop songs (all four of the album's singles came from this side), while side two is a seven-track song suite titled "The Ninth Wave," about a person who's life is flashing before their eyes as they drown.

5. Deerhunter - Cryptograms (2007)

Though Deerhunter's second album Cryptograms was recorded in just two all-day sessions, these two sessions were actually months apart from one another. The first session resulted in the album's first seven tracks, which were influenced by ambient music and shoegaze. The second session yielded tracks 8-12, which are more straightforward (but still psychedelic) pop songs.

6. Dirty Beaches - Drifters/Love is the Devil (2013)

When Dirty Beaches announced its double album Drifters/Love is the Devil, I wasn't entirely confident that Dirty Beaches' distinctively abrasive sound could hold up for a 75-minute LP. Luckily, I was proven wrong when I actually heard the album. The first eight songs, titled "Drifters," translated the band's minimalist rockabilly sound to synth-punk, while the album's second half "Love is the Devil" is made up of breathtaking ambient guitar music.

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Bob Dylan, The Beatles, David Bowie, Kate Bush, Deerhunter