How do you decide which order on the album to place your tracks?!
I have a bad habit of putting something that doesn’t quite fit with everything else first, something I can’t bear to leave off but which seems to interrupt the flow going anywhere else. Second song is usually the one with the most instant gratification. The last song has to be something that will stick— I always pick that one with the idea that the person has put this album on when they got into bed, expecting to be asleep before it’s over, but for whatever reason can’t get to sleep, so when the final song finishes and there’s the sudden, awful silence, that last song has to completely color that moment, trap you there. Connecting the beginning to the end is a push-pull thing, hopefully with a discernible arc like a story, cycles of build and release.
I nearly always think in terms of a Side A & Side B, even if it’s a digital or cd only thing— I think that’s just cuz I spent so many years dubbing everything to tape to listen to in a walkman and being all anal and prideful about the sequencing. Nowadays I usually sit rearranging final mixdowns until I think I have the right arc, then go test out the sequence in a couple different crucial situations: walking around to take care of some menial chores with headphones, in a car, at my job, and in front of other people.
