Album Track Order Forumlas?

[Unrepresented]

There definitely seems to be a few standard formulas floating around the industry for organizing songs on albums, and one can argue that album track order can definitely have a strong impact on the listener (I certainly believe it does, even in this increasingly singles oriented iTunes world we live in).

What are your thoughts on deciding the song order? Similar to a setlist where you balance songs based on tempo, key, theme, narrative arc?

My band's going to be sending our EP to mastering soon and while we've got a tentative order decided there's still a bit of discussion left and I'd like to hear some views on "dealbreaker" orders to avoid.

How do you decide an album opener? How do you decide a closer? What about all the the stuff inbetween 'em? What pushes a song to be track 5 instead of track 6, or track 4?

Apologies if this is the wrong forum, please move if necessary...

[Tumeni Notes]

Well,

Our band just released our debut CD and we researched this exact question. It seems that your best song should be #3 on the album. Then, I think your second best song should #1.

Other than that, I think the order of the remaining songs do not matter that much.

We determined the best songs, not by how much we liked them, but how much we thought the audience would like them.

[tahoebass92]

i'm in the same boat as you... my new cd is gettin ready some ideas: track order should smoothly convey the statement you are making with your EP. If you're telling a story, or have an underlying theme, try to relate it as directly and honestly as possible (i.e. using the different emotional levels of the songs to propel the work of art). Another thing is that your opening track should grap the listener's attention IMMEDIATELY, and subsequent songs should hold their attention. The closer, IMO, should make the listener stop and think, and ponder the entirety of the record.

Sorry for the long response, hope this helps! Good luck bro!

[Tumeni Notes]

I knew it! Tahoebass92 is Geddy Lee!!!!

[tahoebass92]

?? yeah only shy by what, 40 years

[LaklandBass]

I organize them based on how they flow into each other.
I take into account the the outro of one song vs the intro of the next...... also the mood of each song.

If they arent in a good order its not an album... just a disc full of songs.
Remeber, the best albums are the ones that you can just hit play and sit down.

[Raven2k360]

Not sure if this really pertains to CDs by one artist, but whenever I used to make my mixed discs, I used to arrange the tracks by 'feel'. I'd figure out what kind of 'feel' or mood I wanted to start off with, and continue on tweaking the order based on how well they 'flowed' from one track to the next. The idea was to start and end the disc on a track that kind of got you 'amped up' and excited, with kind of an ebb and flow in between. I always got complimented on my mixed tapes and CDs, and never got a complaint....*shrug*

[TortillaChip520]

I try to arrange an album as if it were one musical movement.