TH makes more sense played with tracks in reverse order

circleofthesun · Post by **circleofthesun** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 2:39 am

The seeds of the dead come to dust, and new seeds come from this dust.
This should be our first clue.
Plus, it just sounds much more like a regularly paced LP.
There's a reason they started the campaign with Semena...

thinkdontpray · Post by **thinkdontpray** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 2:44 am

it does work well in reverse but this order is how ive been rocking the album today and its actually making "more sense" to me.

1,17,2,16,3,15,4,14,5,13,6,12,7,11,8,10,9

the only reason i paired them off like that is because in the interview they talk about how come to dust is a reprise of RFTD and so i followed that logic in rearranging them

i highly suggest people give that order a spin

circleofthesun · Post by **circleofthesun** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 2:46 am

I tried that... And it was interesting to see the parallels between the tracks, but it just felt like it would be too choppy to sound like a proper album. I already kind of noticed them in normal sequence.

thinkdontpray · Post by **thinkdontpray** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 2:52 am

i actually found that it was less jarring than some of the original transitions imo

however like i said earlier this is just my take on it and i was suprised how some of the songs lined up. but ending on collapse doesnt work very well. damnit guys why did you have to end on an uneven number?!

regardless of which order you play the album in, its a flawless record period.

circleofthesun · Post by **circleofthesun** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 3:29 am

Agreed.

kid · Post by **kid** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 3:31 am

I prefer the album in reverse order too. the pairing playlist is too jarring for me.
the only bit that kinda ruins the reverse order, or any other order, is the fanfare at the start of Gemini. it kinda seems out of place any where else but as the first thing you hear. it would have been nice if it was a track on its own, or a hidden pre track.

circleofthesun · Post by **circleofthesun** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 4:22 am

Well, I see it as kinda "this is really the last radio transmission on Earth, signin' off"
Another tracklist that works well:

Gemini
Come To Dust
New Seeds
Sundown
Nothing Is Real
Uritual
Split Yr Infinites
Palace Posy
Collapse
Sick Times
Transmisiones Ferox
Cold Earth
Telepath
Jacquard Causeway
White Cyclosa
Reach for the Dead
Semena Mertvykh

Which also works incredibly well in reverse order, proving that BoC really did make a palindromic record.

Keeoaddi · Post by **Keeoaddi** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 4:33 am

I think the whole idea of a palindromic album is really great, I guess that's what Warp was hinting at with the reversed Reach for the Dead tweet, the start is the end, and the end is the start, which fits with this theme of epochal change that they seem to have running through the record.

Also I really liked Palace Posy as soon as i heard it, but it was a bit of jarring change of pace coming right after Collapse in the original track listing, makes a lot more sonic sense coming after Split Your Infinities.

Hitecherous · Post by **Hitecherous** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 4:34 am

kid wrote:I prefer the album in reverse order too. the pairing playlist is too jarring for me.
the only bit that kinda ruins the reverse order, or any other order, is the fanfare at the start of Gemini. it kinda seems out of place any where else but as the first thing you hear. it would have been nice if it was a track on its own, or a hidden pre track.

Not going to lie, all the tracks sound great when reversed. Even Warp records posted a tweet of Reach for the Dead in reverse. And Mike's comments about a palindrome.. Also this would make the album end on the reversed fanfare of Gemini.

circleofthesun · Post by **circleofthesun** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 4:53 am

I have yet to open up Audacity, let alone the ole Spectrograph.

wash · Post by **wash** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 5:11 am

circleofthesun wrote:Well, I see it as kinda "this is really the last radio transmission on Earth, signin' off"

I can see it. Gemini as the last track is even more terrifying than Semena Mertvykh. It starts off calm and orderly with this neat little intro, and even when the strings come in it sounds like a movie soundtrack building up to something majestic...then it becomes a dark nightmarish wasteland for the following two minutes. The arpeggiated synth starts to rise suggesting something great about to happen... but then the whole thing just gets swallowed up and dissolves like the Challenger explosion. I can make out some faint mechanical whirling and what sounds like a screwdriver int he last minute or so. In the last six seconds you can clearly hear in the left channel what sounds like a radio transmission before it's abruptly cut off in a brief whirl of static, and the record ends. The final words of someone onboard before joining forces within the infinite?

I would love to construct a narrative to accompany TH. It's one of the most cinematic albums I've heard in ages.

circleofthesun · Post by **circleofthesun** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 5:26 am

I hope this is an indication of a revival of cinematic LPs as an artform?

Kathleen · Post by **Kathleen** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 5:43 am

thinkdontpray wrote:i actually found that it was less jarring than some of the original transitions imo

however like i said earlier this is just my take on it and i was suprised how some of the songs lined up. but ending on collapse doesnt work very well. damnit guys why did you have to end on an uneven number?!

regardless of which order you play the album in, its a flawless record period.

I tried your playlist earlier and it sounds great to me. The whole palindromic/companion songs thing has me thinking, since there are two distinct... moods to the album... I wonder if at one point this really was going to be a double album?

thinkdontpray · Post by **thinkdontpray** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 6:13 am

hmm i wonder

perhaps a little like system of a down. they recorded two albums at the same time and split them up into two releases, mesmerize and hypnotize which had themes running through all the songs

im sure nobody here is a SOAD fan......right? lol

wishful thinking though. if this album is more about the lead up to the apocalypse then im really curious as to hear what the BoC apocalypse or BoCalypse as i like to call it, would sound like

i've never actually used the word BoCalypse

but im going to start now!

paul · Post by **paul** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 6:14 am

Kathleen wrote:
thinkdontpray wrote:i actually found that it was less jarring than some of the original transitions imo

however like i said earlier this is just my take on it and i was suprised how some of the songs lined up. but ending on collapse doesnt work very well. damnit guys why did you have to end on an uneven number?!

regardless of which order you play the album in, its a flawless record period.
I tried your playlist earlier and it sounds great to me. The whole palindromic/companion songs thing has me thinking, since there are two distinct... moods to the album... I wonder if at one point this really was going to be a double album?

i was first a little blown away that Come To Dust (one of the greatest tracks ever) is a reprise of RFTD (which breaks my heart and is one of the special tracks for me on this LP). how did i not notice? instead, the one thing i kept thinking was that Palace Posy and Jacquard Causeway were twins separated at birth. Palace was the twin brother that had it all - looks, humor, popularity. Jacquard was his disheveled, weird, unhinged brother with Tourette's. this sounds incredibly stupid but it keeps coming to me and was the only connection i made that tracks might be counterparts. there's no end to it!

Radiobuzz · Post by **Radiobuzz** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 1:16 pm

circleofthesun wrote:Well, I see it as kinda "this is really the last radio transmission on Earth, signin' off"
Another tracklist that works well:

Gemini
Come To Dust
New Seeds
Sundown
Nothing Is Real
Uritual
Split Yr Infinites
Palace Posy
Collapse
Sick Times
Transmisiones Ferox
Cold Earth
Telepath
Jacquard Causeway
White Cyclosa
Reach for the Dead
Semena Mertvykh

Which also works incredibly well in reverse order, proving that BoC really did make a palindromic record.

I'm really eager to try your playlist. Like I said yesterday after a superficial listening, Gemini's ending doesn't correspond with RFTT's beginning, neither the end of Collapse with the start of Palace Posy. However, the fact that Gemini and Semena are basically the same song makes me think the first, middle and last track should be kept where they are, the same as you did here.

I barely have time to listen TH currently, much less to experiment with it, but I think we should focus on the ending sounds of some of the tracks to figure out the order. For example, both Gemini and Collapse end with a noise/static building up that cuts off abruptly, so maybe trying to sync those will reveal another order for them.

kid · Post by **kid** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 2:23 pm

jacquard causeway definitely works better towards the end of the album. it's almost too full on to be heard so early in the album. I like the track anyway, but i think I enjoy it more hearing it later in the album.

Post by **Aesthetics** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 2:28 pm

This morning the idea of reversing it came to my mind as well. Sounded a lot better

Would be fun if the vinyl plays inside to outside!

noby · Post by **noby** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 2:32 pm

I don't think it works in reverse order at all (apart from the outro track as intro).

/2cents