A good opening track should offer a captivating example of the rest of the album to come, but sometimes a song is chosen to open the album that doesn't sound anything like the other songs. Here are eight great opening tracks that are unlike the rest of the album.
1. Wilco - "The Art of Almost" (2011)
Wilco's one of the few bands to combines elements of the avant-garde with Americana and country, but on some occasions the band does away with country and completely embraces experimental sounds, like on the seven-minute opener to 2011's The Whole Love. The track's chaotic, electronic sound is reminiscent of Radiohead, even though the rest of the album is pretty standard Wilco.
2. Pavement - "We Dance" (1995)
Being a lengthy and bizarrely eclectic LP, Wowee Zowee is often described as Pavement's "White Album," though its opening track doesn't quite anticipate the surreal indie rock that follows. "We Dance" is a gorgeous acoustic ballad, but the only things that really makes it feel like a Pavement song are Stephen Malkmus' distinct voice and his borderline nonsensical lyrics.
3. The Velvet Underground - "Sunday Morning" (1967)
As experimental as the Velvet Underground was, attempts were nonetheless made by producer Tom Wilson to get a successful pop single out of the band, which resulted in "Sunday Morning," the opening track to The Velvet Underground & Nico. The song's lush, dreamy sound greatly contrasts with the grittiness of the album's other tracks, but despite its polished production, "Sunday Morning" still wasn't a hit.
4. The Smiths - "A Rush and a Push and the Land is Ours" (1987)
Strangeways, Here We Come was Johnny Marr's attempt to move the Smiths away from its famous jangle pop sound, which he manages pretty successfully on the album's opener "A Rush and a Push and the Land is Ours" by replacing his guitar with keyboards and marimbas. The rest of the album is pretty strange and eclectic, but no other Smiths song sounds like this opener.
5. King Crimson - "21st Century Schizoid Man" (1969)
King Crimson is often cited as a forerunner and innovator of heavy metal, but just one song on the band's classic debut In the Court of the Crimson King could be described as "metallic": the opener, "21st Century Schizoid Man." The rest of the album is similarly progressive, but in a more symphonic and less fuzzy manner.
6. Deerhunter - "Earthquake" (2010)
The music of Deerhunter is a constant tug of war between abstract psychedelia and guitar pop, but for the first five minutes of 2010's Halcyon Digest, the band gives in entirely to its abstract impulses with "Earthquake," a glacially paced blend of electronic drums, heavily treated guitars, obscured vocals, and waves of ambient noise. The rest of the album is still strange, but it at least resembles pop music.
7. Cloud Nothings - "No Future/No Past" (2012)
For its third album Attack On Memory, Cloud Nothings adopted a blistering new sound inspired by post-hardcore, but the album's opening track takes a more slow burning approach. "No Future/No Past" is essentially a four-and-a-half minute minimalist build-up, but once it's over, the rest of the album is non-stop punk.
8. The Replacements - "Hootenanny" (1983)
The Replacements were some of the biggest pranksters in the American indie rock underground, something fairly evident in the title track to the band's second album Hootenanny, which was created on the spot when the band members switched instruments in the studio. The rest of the album is still punky and rough, but none are as silly and tossed off as "Hootenanny."
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