From Rgeary2 Sent Thu, Nov 5th 1998, 23:57
From Rgeary2 Sent Thu, Nov 5th 1998, 23:57
I believe the empty space is just that...empty space. It's an old trick, really--and it does one of a couple of things. --hides a bonus track, or in AE's case bonus noise, so that if you just get up and turn off the player after the last track you'll miss it. --sort of serves as a conceptual separator, making the album as a whole the songs preceeding the blank, and then making a little 'experimental space' for you. i think this is the point of the space on beck's new one-- after 11 really low key songs, there's one kinda psychedelic rocker after that. actually, i wonder if the silence & bonus noise is a nod to weird rockers like beck and sonic youth...i know beck has been doing that for years, and the liner notes to 'stereopathetic soulmanure' cheerily inform the reader that after the songs they'll be treated to "four minutes of silence and bonus noise." So short answer-- nah, you're not really shortchanging yourself by cutting the silence down. in fact, i think AE's goes on a little long, and only makes sense when you have the disc on loop, as someone previously brought up. rob ooh, one other thought--since most (? many?) people now have cd changers, maybe the bonus silence is to put a nice space between one disc and the next, giving you a little time to think/readjust after AE? hmm...i know it had that effect for me last night, where the move from AE to Miles' Bitches Brew was eased a bit.