Recovery Slightly Ruined by Sequencing...

[xxTrigger1989xx]

STOP FUCKING SPAMMING

The spamming stopped a while ago...

[KaRtLiDgE]

I read Dre say somewhere recently that sequencing on an album is very important and can affect your entire memory of it and I completely agree.

Aside from the obvious lyrical flaws here and there on Recovery and of course the production (and amount of variety of it), which made it feel a bit mixed - I think Recovery's biggest killer which stopped it from being a classic, at least for me - Was its sequencing.

A lot of critics and fans saw the album as aimless and inconsistent, but in reality it's about as consistent as any of his others. All of his albums have contradictions, multiple aims, multiple messages etc. Of course his others are more consistent and have better themes BUT, I think Recovery only feels SO random due to its ordering...

I mean look at it, he has "Cold Wind Blows" - An all out assult track, followed by "Talking 2 Myself" where he's sombre, self-critical and apologetic lmao. He creates direct paradoxes with these orderings that I feel make the album feel confused after a full listen.

Picture an ordering more like this...

1. Cold Wind Blows
2. On Fire
3. Won't Back Down
4. Here We Go
5. W.T.P.
6. Talkin' 2 Myself (feat. Kobe)
7. Going Through Changes
8. Not Afraid
9. No Love (feat. Lil Wayne)
10. Seduction
11. So Bad
12. Love the Way You Lie (feat. Rihanna)
13. Space Bound
14. 25 to Life
15. Cinderella Man
16. You're Never Over
17. Almost Famous

Now with that ordering, that looks like a classic album to me. Or certainly a lot closer.

With his current sequencing, he has a punchline track followed by a personal track, followed by a punchline track etc. It's back and forth, irregular and random.

With that ordering, you have...
1-4: Punchline / battle tracks.
5: Intermission / breaker.
6-8: Personal / introspective tracks.
9. Intermission / breaker.
10-13: Relationship / love tracks.
14: Intermission / breaker but also direct development / relationship with hip-hop.
15: Stand-alone.
16. Stand-alone.
17. CLOSER.

I think that kind of ordering would make sense and make the album feel consistent and ordered. As lyrically and stylistically he kept it pretty consistent, all the tracks feel like they belong.

And "Almost Famous" is a closer if I've ever heard one. Imagine that crazy listen and then the album closes with ten rounds with Tyson, ending on the line "I'M ALMOST FAMOUS!".

I definitely think he's had classic albums of material the past two albums but has botched it by bad track choices, ordering and the wrong presentation. I mean Relapse is a few tracks wrong from being a perfect album in its own right but, even though it's only two, they totally ruin it.

Like-wise, I think the sequencing of Recovery really spoils it. As bizarre as that seems, given it's still the same collection of songs, I definitely think it can majorly affect your memory / placement of it.

Also - I'm aware his other albums also have what you could consider contradictory or 'random' sequencing but I think that the reason they feel 'right' despite it, is due to the production. On all previous albums the production has been handled by one team so it has been consistent and they craft one sound per album.

With Recovery, you have a whole bunch of producers with different sounds. So I think the track ordering / lyrical batching was absolutely paramount to making it feel consistent, in spite of the amount of different production. It was the reverse situation if you will.

you got a lot of time on your hands...

and all his albums had those serious songs followed by some funny or emotional song. Literally EVERY1 of his albums had songs of 1 emotion, followed by a song with the total opposite emotion.

The way hes ordered his albums has always been like this and to AVOID what you did in your tracklist, which is a smooth transition from song to song. I'm not saying your idea is a bad one, but it has definitely been the norm for the past 10+ years.

[KaRtLiDgE]

and albums aren't ordered to fit a storyline. They are ordered feeling to feeling. Having two tracks with the same feeling is a no-no on Eminem albums.

Listen to "It Was Written" by Nas. Feeling to feeling, that album is amazing. Nas could of easily ordered the album to fit some sort of storyline, but it takes away from the experience of listening to an album in full. Feeling to feeling is what is important and really gives the listener the full experience. A storyline WILL GET BORING after a few listens. The same way watching a movie a few times does.

This has been tested and experimented for decades. Having the tracks contradict the previous one and having 3 - 5 different feeling songs strung together keeps an album exciting and fresh.

PS. sorry for the double post.

[ShadyNarkoticz]

The problems with your tracklisting are I like the transition from Seduction to No Love and would like to keep that. And Talkin' 2 Myself definitely needs to be second. Just like someone said, he's reintroducing himself and getting some shit outta the way right up front.

Other than that, when I get some time, I'll listen to it in this ordered way and see how it fairs out.