Hidden Tracks

I was listening to a couple of mid 90's discs, and I realized that hidden tracks are a major pet peeve of mine. Part of it has to do with the way I consume music. I put them in a large volume CD changer, and then program them by genre and let it play randomly. But if a disc has 66 tracks on it, and only 11 contain actual songs, then 5 of 6 times the CD is selected I'll just hear a blank track.
The other thing I hate about it is if the hidden track is at the 15:00 mark of the last song, and I have to sit through 10 minutes of silence (or fast forward) to hear what is usually some sort of stoned out gibberish anyway. I feel like the band is having a private joke at my expense. There are a few really great hidden tracks, but even then the awkwardness of the format tends to put me off the disc.
For awhile it seemed like any band that wanted to come off as trippy or mysterious had a hidden track on their CD. I'm hoping this was a fad that has faded away for the most part, because I didn't find it cute at all. What do you think?

Same here. They drive me nuts! I don't mind hidden tracks, of course, but make them the next track! No 99 track CDs, no 30 minutes of silence. Just make the final track unmarked on the booklet.

Like you, I generally put albums on shuffle, and those 87 songs that last 2-seconds are lame, as is the silence at the end of the "final" track before the hidden track.

I prefer just standard "bonus" tracks, I hate those stupid little 3 seconds or 4 seconds of silence. Along with waiting through 8 minutes or so to get to the hidden track. I'd prefer it if, they just threw it on as its own track, and just left it off the insert listing if they want to "hide" it.

I hate 'em too. What I hate even worse is when I can tell there's a hidden track on track 99 so I fast forward my way to track 99 only to find it's the band belching and farting around while in the studio.

Do you think it's gone out of style? Seems to me it has, but I'm not as in touch with current product as many of you.

tohostudios wrote:

I hate 'em too. What I hate even worse is when I can tell there's a hidden track on track 99 so I fast forward my way to track 99 only to find it's the band belching and farting around while in the studio.

Yeah, that is stupid. Ever heard the hidden tracks on The Dead Milkmen's Metaphysical Grafitti? There's a bunch scattered throughout the CD. Some of the funniest things I've ever heard.

Some band do get a little creative. On 311's Transistor album, if you rewind as soon as track 1 started to play, there's a hidden instrumental track. On an Ani Difranco CD, I forget which, when you let a song play through, it'll go into a negative (-0:01, and so on), and in that negative time, there's some additional instrumental pieces and spoken word bits. That's kind of cool.

SAHB Healer wrote:

Do you think it's gone out of style? Seems to me it has, but I'm not as in touch with current product as many of you.

I think it has, though some band still do it. Suspyre's new reissue of The Silvery Image has about 15 minutes of dead space after the new bonus track, then it's like 5 minutes of the band talking...or something. I keep forgetting to listen to it. The first time I heard it was here at work and my co-worker and I were standing around talking, I was unaware the music had stopped, and all of a sudden we're hearing low voices and laughing and stuff. We were looking out the windows, going "Who the hell is that?" Haha. We figured it out once the song ended and shuffled to another.

Yep, I've always hated this trend too.

The only way I was ever impressed with it is if the hidden song is included before track 1 so you actually have to search backwards from zero to hear it and then the cd plays normally after that. Still a pain in the ass, but at least it's a bit more creative than having 10:00 of blank space before getting to THE BIG SECRET.

Eyesore wrote:

Same here. They drive me nuts! I don't mind hidden tracks, of course, but make them the next track! No 99 track CDs, no 30 minutes of silence. Just make the final track unmarked on the booklet.

Like you, I generally put albums on shuffle, and those 87 songs that last 2-seconds are lame, as is the silence at the end of the "final" track before the hidden track.

One album that did that was Death's The Sound of Perseverance. The closing track is a cover of Judas Priest's "Painkiller", yet it is unlisted on the back of the album. At the very least, my pressing, anyways (I own the Deluxe Edition, I have no idea if the original pressing was like that or not).

TrogDawn wrote:

Yep, I've always hated this trend too.

Me too

I am gonna release an album of 72 blank tracks and send it to old people for free. That is my contribution to trying to curb over-population. Pm me your addy SAHB.

Required Fields wrote:

Eyesore wrote:

Same here. They drive me nuts! I don't mind hidden tracks, of course, but make them the next track! No 99 track CDs, no 30 minutes of silence. Just make the final track unmarked on the booklet.

Like you, I generally put albums on shuffle, and those 87 songs that last 2-seconds are lame, as is the silence at the end of the "final" track before the hidden track.

One album that did that was Death's The Sound of Perseverance. The closing track is a cover of Judas Priest's "Painkiller", yet it is unlisted on the back of the album. At the very least, my pressing, anyways (I own the Deluxe Edition, I have no idea if the original pressing was like that or not).

That's only on the deluxe edition. The original had it listed.

One CD I have (I think it's something by Vanishing Point) actually STARTS with about 5 minutes of silence with a track called "Surreal". Well, it sure was surreal as I ejected the thing and exiled it to the door pouch of my car. It still being punished by residing there to this day.

Even It Isn't Metal, take "American Psycho" from Misfits for a good example of well hated hidden track!!

The track itself isn't all bad, but man that's ridicolous....

I do like Cracker's Euro-Trash Girl. That is the one that always springs to mind. I am just glad they released it as a cd single with a bunch of other cool tunes pretty quickly.

SAXON1500 wrote:

I do like Cracker's Euro-Trash Girl. That is the one that always springs to mind. I am just glad they released it as a cd single with a bunch of other cool tunes pretty quickly.

Yeah, that is a good one. I like Cracker.

Type O Negative has a track that's just completely silent on thier Solw Deep and Hard album. They have pulled funny schananigans on thier CD's as weel, like on October Rust, and World Coming Down.

I'm glad that whole 99 track fad is over too. Hated that. It might have been different if any of those "bonus tracks" were any good....

Bands that did it that comes to mind:

Overkill
Danzig
Forbidden
Nirvana
Tool

Selvmord wrote:

Nirvana

Well their regular songs sucked too, what do you expect?

DeathCult wrote:

Selvmord wrote:

Nirvana

Well their regular songs sucked too, what do you expect?

Exactly! I never understood what was so great about them anyway.

Oh yeah, cause thier singer offed himself just as the bands popularity started to take a downturn. All of a sudden he's a god......

Just my opinion....

I liked the initial Nirvana debut well enough but I agree, the hype machine made way more of that band after that than the music warranted IMO.

My doubleDrive - 1000 Yard Stare has a hidden track on like like track and it is Mexican Radio!

Wargod48

SAXON1500 wrote:

I am gonna release an album of 72 blank tracks and send it to old people for free. That is my contribution to trying to curb over-population. Pm me your addy SAHB.

Do you mean decreasing the surplus population? You don't need to fret about me contributing to over population, because my gonads are in a jar somewhere in some pathologist's lab.
But it wouldn't work anyway. I'd just think my hearing aid was turned down; and I'd crank it up until I picked up something...probably the neighbor's stereo. Then I'd wonder how you could be such a tool as to send me a Helen Reddy CD with really loud cat farts on it.

But... but don't you like to listen to the silence and try to communicate with the dead or something?

Anyone have Timelord's Regeneration? First off, badass album. Second, the band deserves a turkey slap from an elephant. The album comes with three bonus tracks, from a demo called The Devil's Game. Cool! Bonus tracks are great.

Yeah, normally.

These tracks are not hidden tracks; they're listed on the tray card and booklet, though just as The Devil's Game (Demo). Anyway, track 10, the last Regeneration track, is 12:15 long. But only 3:04 is music; the rest is silence. Track 11 is the first demo track, at 7:08. That song is actually 4:46 long; the rest is silence. Track 12 is 6:05 long, with 3:47 of music; the rest is silence. Track 13 is 4:42 long, with 4:42 of music.

Can someone explain to me what kind of idiot put this album together? Because they're one of those specials kinds.

I always hated hidden tracks. Never understood what's funny or creative about it.