Albums with a better flip side

A Disgrace

Ok, imagine we live in magical world where order has been restored and you have to turn the album over to hear the second half of the songs. Its a brave move by any band to leave their best songs until the end of the record, but it's also a mega rewarding thing for the listener. What albums do you think have a better flip side?

Here's my choices:

U2 - Achtung Baby!

A1 Zoo Station 4:36
A2 Even Better Than the Real Thing 3:41
A3 One 4:36
A4 Until the End of the World 4:39 A5
Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses 5:16
A6 So Cruel 5:49
B1 The Fly 4:29
B2 Mysterious Ways 4:04
B3 Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World 3:53
B4 Ultra Violet (Light My Way) 5:31
B5 Acrobat 4:30 B6 Love Is Blindness 4:23

To turn the cassette, or plastic over, after the brilliance of 'So Cruel' and be dealt such a hand as 'The Fly' is gonna leave an impression, but it's like the start of a new record. Where U2 where toying with the idea of breaking out on side A, they truly ran with it on side B. It's got everything that was great about this band at the time. 'The Fly' was the ultimate antidote to the Americana that they botched so badly on Rattle and Hum, it was also the perfect foil for the anthems of the Joshua Tree. 'mysterious Ways' sounded like nothing they'd done yet. It had it's elements of funk, it hinted at sex, it was indeed, mysterious. 'Tryin' to throw' was a kick back. It was a lounge song, a sound track for the hangovers that the band had suddenly begun enjoying ever since they put down their bibles and cracked open some bubbly. It was the sound of 4 men licking champers off a supermodel. 'Ultra Violet', which lay abandonded untiul the recent tour, is far and away the albums stand-out track. It's the one time Bonos lyrics stuck. The familiar guitar sound made perfect sense at last, and at the very least, it served as an ironic red herring as to what was next. 'Acrobat' is the heaviest and darkest song they've ever done. It occupies the often important penultimate song berth with menace. Tbh, sometimes after lsitening I have to go to bed for a while, it's that immense, so to have it early on would not have made sense. If you're still standing, 'Love is Blindness' hits you like a train. It's possible the best closing number they've done. It wraps everything up, uncomfrotably/ Those who were dancing earlier to 'Even better than the real thing', are now starring at their feet. Where side one showed a band at the peak of their powers, side 2 showed one exceeding it.

Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run

A1 Thunder Road 4:50
A2 Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out 3:11
A3 Night 3:01
A4 Backstreets 6:30
B1 Born to Run 4:30
B2 She's the One 4:30
B3 Meeting Across the River 3:19
B4 Jungleland 9:33

Primarily, the whole of side A pretty much serves as a trailer for whats to come. It's a relief when you drop the needle on 'Born to Run'. The whole record had been building like a storm to this moment. The opening bars, the drums, it washs over you cleaning you of the muggy, uneasy feeling that 'Backstreets' had left you with. You almost feel refreshed. 'Shes the one' eases you back gently, it's a bit too nice for this record and you get the feeling that you're being conned. 'Meeting across the river' is a smokey, confined masterpiece. It further reinforces the image of being in a battered NYC bar, listening to a man empty his heart, but it's carrying on like the tracks did before it, building up to the fulcrum of the record, "Jungleland'. There are no words for this song. If ever there was an album where ipod shuffle should retire, it's this. Needs to be listened in one, and needs to be turned over just before 'Born to Run'

Pixies - Trompe Le Monde

A1 Trompe le monde 1:46
A2 Planet of Sound 2:06
A3 Alec Eiffel 2:50
A4 The Sad Punk 2:59
A5 Head On 2:14
A6 U-Mass 3:00
A7 Palace of the Brine 1:34
A8 Letter to Memphis 2:39
B1 Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons 2:48
B2 Space (I Believe In) 4:18
B3 Subbacultcha 2:09
B4 Distance Equals Rate Times Time 1:24
B5 Lovely Day 2:05
B6 Motorway to Roswell 4:43
B7 The Navajo Know 2:19


After the closing track of Side A "Letter to Memphis", the opening of side B needs to be good. It leads you by the hand gently. Starting out like a relaxed re-introduction to the album and you think, maybe, after all the angst on side A, their winding it down now. It doesn't. It cranks it up. 'Space (I believe in) reminds us where we are. We're up to our necks in the Pixies break up record, and in true ironic style, the one record where they at last make sense. 'Subacultcha' is merely a signpost on the road, it's crunchy chords the perfect warm up act for the immense "Distance equals...", the punkiest the Pixies have sounded yet. 'Lovely day' hints at a happy ending, but ultimately reverts to type. It's neo-ska throwing a giant curve ball before the best song the band has ever released arrives like an estranged father, 'Motorway to Roswell'. They may as well have recorded Mary Harney getting sick into a bucket for all I care about the next song, if only cos I cannot get past 'Motorway'.. On saying that 'The Navajo Know' is a classic closer. Especially as you know where Frank Black is going next....

Christ, I really hadn't intended to write so much.. sorry.

DerekD Goldfish

for once im not in a big spiel list lots of albums and ramble on about them mood
so Ill just say the first Smiths record second side is fantastic

Taz86

A Disgrace, that’s an interesting topic. Unfortunately I can’t think of many even though I used cassettes pretty much constantly 'til I was about 11 or 12. The thing is, like you said, it is brave to put the great stuff on the other side so it's hard to think of many who have done it. I know I prefer side 2 of Bowie’s ‘Low’. If he was feeling very brave he could’ve put those instrumentals on side 1. I think people were perplexed at the time even with those tunes on side 2 of 'Low'. I heard it for the first time a few years ago and was also surprised. I thought it was very strange stuff.

Yeah, it makes commercial sense to shove all the strong and easily understood stuff at the beginning to draw the listener in so yeah superior second sides are harder to come by I suppose.

Interesting topic. Soz, can't think of any albums though!

loveissucide

Thriller-Michael Jackson
From Beat It onwards it's awesome stuff

Hounds Of Love-Kate Bush
Essentially 2 EPs stuck together,as seen by the disparate sounds of the two sides

Illmatic-Nas
First side ending at Halftime,with the more contemplative tracks on the 2nd side.

Shouldn't this be moved to Music?Fail to see how this is specific to indie.

KnifeWRENCH

Radiohead In Rainbows - first side is brilliant but the triple whammy of "Reckoner", "House Of Cards" and "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" means the second side just about trumps it.

A Disgrace

loveissucide wrote: »

Thriller-Michael Jackson
From Beat It onwards it's awesome stuff

Hounds Of Love-Kate Bush
Essentially 2 EPs stuck together,as seen by the disparate sounds of the two sides

Illmatic-Nas
First side ending at Halftime,with the more contemplative tracks on the 2nd side.

Shouldn't this be moved to Music?Fail to see how this is specific to indie.

I keep forgetting the Music forum, guess I'm more an indie kid, even if two of the artists I mention aren't overly indie, and I'm not really a kid either..

whatawaster

The Strokes - Is this it

Side One
Is this it
The Modern Age
Soma
Barely Legal
Someday

Side Two
Alone, Together
Last Nite
Hard to Explain
NYC Cops
Trying your luck
Take it or leave it


Hmm, both strong sides, but side 2 has more big hitters, and is, i think, marginally stronger.