Album Sequencing Is Part of the Music

Can you change an album without changing a single note? In this episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave makes Musical Argument #6: album sequencing is part of the music. Using Yes’s Tormato as the experiment, Dave physically rearranges tracks and asks what happens when an opener moves, a closer loses its final position, or a Side One ending becomes something else. Tormato was released in 1978, and its original eight-track sequence runs from “Future Times / Rejoice” through “On the Silent Wings of Freedom.” The argument is not that the album needs fixing. The argument is that changing the sequence changes how the same songs interact. The Side One Test: Does Track One open the right door? Do neighboring songs help one another? And does the last track feel like an ending? Side One Spin: What album has a running order you would never change?