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Long songs can be tricky for an artist to deal with. They can't really be released as singles, but they also run the risk of ruining the flow of an otherwise great album. These artists got around this problem by placing their extremely long songs at the end of their album. -
9 Albums That Open With Instrumentals: Simon & Garfunkel, Modest Mouse And More
Last week I wrote about albums that end on instrumental tracks, which I described as sort of epilogues to the album's narrative structure. If ending an album on an instrumental is an epilogue, opening with one must be a prologue, a way to ease the listener in. Here are nine albums that open with instrumental tracks. -
15 Song Titles That Describe The Music: George Harrison, Gorillaz, And More
Anyone who writes music can tell you that when a song is first written, it's usually given a boring descriptive title such as "Punk Song in A" or "Song With Slide Guitar" to remind the writer of how it goes. However, sometimes an actual title never comes along, and these descriptive working titles end up in the final tracklisting. Here are 15 song titles that describe the music. -
8 Band Names That Don't Fit The Music: The Zombies, Primal Scream, And More
Some bands have names that give you a perfect idea of what kind of music they play. I mean, what other kind of band could Slayer possibly be, or Black Flag? However, these eight bands chose names that don't quite represent the music they make. -
7 Albums With Two Versions Of The Same Song: The Beatles, Pink Floyd, And More
I've written before about artists who have recorded two versions of the same song, but usually these two different versions appear on separate releases. These seven artists, however, recorded two different versions of one song for the very same album. -
8 Song Titles That Are Homages To Other Songs: The Smiths, Radiohead, and more
In choosing song titles or band names, it's not uncommon for an artist to reference other works of art, such as books or films, and sometimes they even reference other songs. Here are eight song titles that are homages to other songs. -
5 Alt-Rock Albums With Multiple Cover Songs: Jeff Buckley, Nick Cave, and more
When an artist performs a cover song, especially alternative or punk artists, it's usually reserved for live shows or as a bonus track for an album, but on rare occasions these cover songs make their way into the album's proper tracklisting. However, even more rare is when an artist includes multiple cover songs on a single album. Here are five alternative rock albums with more than one cover song (excluding cover albums, of course). -
5 Artists Who Basically Wrote the Same Song Twice: Neil Young, the White Stripes, and more
When it was discovered today that Pharrell starts all of his songs the same way, it got me thinking about other artists who pulled similar tricks in multiple songs. It's one thing to have a signature sound, but these five artists pretty much wrote the same song two times (one artist even did it on the same album). -
6 Bands That Released Music Under Two Different Names: XTC, Yo La Tengo, and more
In a world where the Smashing Pumpkins can tour and release music with only one original member, it's unusual to see bands change their names with only the slightest shifts in line-up or style. Here are six bands that released music under two different names. -
8 Incredible Alt-Rock Instrumental Songs: Radiohead, R.E.M., and more
Well-written lyrics can make a great song even better, but there are a ton of songs that work perfectly without any words at all, even from bands that don't normally write instrumentals. Here are eight incredible instrumental songs from alt-rock bands. -
5 Artists with Unexpected Senses of Humor: Jeff Buckley, Nirvana, and more
Plenty of artists play types of music that allow room for humor and silliness. Because the Beatles wrote light, fun songs, it wasn't so surprising when they would joke around in interviews and make hilarious movies like A Hard Day's Night. However, some artists project such a solemn image through their music that it's hard to imagine them ever laughing about anything, such as these five artists. -
6 Great Songs with Just One Chord: Aretha Franklin, The Beatles, and more
Coming up with a decent chord progression is a difficult task for some songwriters. Some take the easy way out and just use tired, clichéd progression that we've heard a thousand times before (I'm looking at you, every artist in this Wikipedia article I found), while others make the odd decision to do away with progressions entirely, playing one chord and nothing else. Here are six great songs written with just one chord.
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