# Do you ever recustomize album track listings for a better listen?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-recustomize-album-track-listings-for-a-better-listen/491874>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [April 3, 2009, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-recustomize-album-track-listings-for-a-better-listen/491874 "2009-04-03T16:16:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![fusoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@fusoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fusoya)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-recustomize-album-track-listings-for-a-better-listen/491874/1 "2009-04-03T16:16:10Z")

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Inspired by a comment I just made in The Decemberists thread…on their album _The Crane Wife_, there is a 3 chapter song called…The Crane Wife…on the album, they put part 3 as the first track, and parts 1 & 2 are on the same track towards the end of the album. I never really got the story as to why this was done this way, but they play all 3 parts in chronological order when live, and part 2 flows into part 3 perfectly, so I moved part 3 to after part 2, making The Island the first track on the album. I find that this slight re-ordering makes the album more enjoyable to me.

Another MAJOR reordering I did was back in 2004 when the They Might Be Giants album _The Spine_ was released. The album had some great songs on it, but it also had a couple of unbearable songs. At the same time, there were a couple of EPs and non-album singles that TMBG had released, which were much more album worthy. So I spent about a month straight experimenting with different song combinations and track orderings, until I created what I consider to be TMBG’s best “album” ever, with a perfect song flow, which I dubbed _Spine 2.0_ … many other hardcore TMBG fans consider this vastly superior to the official Spine release as well:

1. The Spine Surfs Alone
2. Thunderbird
3. It’s Kickin’ In
4. Stalk of Wheat
5. Spine
6. Memo to Human Resources
7. Broke in Two
8. Am I Awake
9. Experimental Film
10. The Other Side of the World
11. Museum of Idiots
12. Fun Assassin
13. Spines
14. Au Contraire
15. Damn Good Times
16. I’m All You Can Think About
17. Renew My Subscription
18. Now Is Strange
19. Wearing a Raincoat
20. Prevenge
21. Ant (2004 horn version)

Total time: 46.2 minutes

so what customizations have you done to albums which you’d recommend?