That was hard to find, honest. (Hidden Tracks)

Name: Irp13

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Product:	Hidden Tracks
Date:	07/06/01 (112 review reads)
Rating:

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There I am, I've just brought a nice shiny new CD, so I shove it in the CD player and see how long it is. 'Wow' I think as it says that the CD is a full 76 minutes long, 'well that well worth the money then'. After listening to it for the next 40 minutes or so I form an intial opinion, anywhere from 'oh no. What a mistake, I could of brought <insert artist>'s album with that money' and continually berate myself for the stupidty that inspired me to buy, to 'woohoo! Where have you been all my life? Can I marry you now?' followed by 'Whoops, how am I going to explain the broken bed and hole in the ceiling' after getting over excited and jumping on the bed. And then comes a curious silence and I start to wonder if the CD changer has busted, but no the CD still has a long time to run. What a fool I was to believe that the whole 76 minutes would be filled with music, but still this bonus track could be worth the 25 minutes of still air. And so the wait begins.

Well actually more the pressing of the fast forward button. Then we get it the bonus hidden track and it is quite often the most apalling tosh I've ever heard. These hidden tracks fall into one of three categories, either:
a) the remix of another album track, quite often infinitely inferior but on rare occassions it can actually live upto the orginal, ala Gorillaz.
b) the one that just was strangely omitted, a unique song that although perfectly formed wasn't listed, quite often these are shorter than the average album track and so similar quality.
c) its all just for comic effect, as my Mum found out at the end of the Robbie album, when he does the highly worthwhile thing of telling you theres no hidden track. If he wanted to make it mysterious then he should of done a Man Or Astro-man and done 25 minutes of blank air and the nothing at all, then your sat there thinking 'did I miss something?'.

Whilst it may be calle
d a 'hidden track', we all know that if the last track is thirty minutes long and the music fades out after five that you'll have to reach for the fast forward and see whats at the other end. Of course Marilyn Manson on their album 'Anti-Christ Superstar' did a bit of a variation and put on 99 tracks, however why did they still insist on putting the hidden track on as number 99? If it were at say 82 then that could of taken some finding and many people may of given up, at least they nearly got it right.

On tape however the hidden track can work very well as you think nothing of it when your tape falls silent, as sides are invariably of different lengths, so you hit fast forwards and turn over. It was so easy to miss them for months or even years and then come to it one day and get a rather delightful little surprise. Admittedly this doesn't work as well when you list the hidden track as 'Untitled' on the side of the tape like 'No Alternative' compilation did.

The main problem I have with the hidden track is that when you play your CD on random there is nothing more irritating than finding yourself listening to the stunning sounds of silence (on that subject on the Two Witches album, 'Eternal Passion', there is a track called 'The Experience Of Silence' which is literally that and last for ten seconds but I'm sure thats been done else were). If they wish to put bonus unlisted tracks then why not do what many Goth/Industrial albums do (well at least Man(i)kin, The Shroud and Narcissus Pool) and just put on the extra tracks, seperate distinct and far less annoying. Of course this still does not relieve the final problem of not actually knowing what the track is called even if it does have a title.

So to conclude I don't like the hidden track. If it is truely hidden thats not so bad as its a pleasent surprise when you come across it but otherwise I can live without it. If the rec
ord company really wants to put bonus unlisted tracks then please just bung a couple of extra tracks on the end (you can even include a silent track between that and the main album if you must) and then put the titles in the booklet somewhere. However I really like to know what I'm buying in advance, cause at times that extra track may have just of swung it so that I brought their album as opposed to someone elses.

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