u/NukeL3AR

I'm posting here bc there's no world in which this would be allowed on the main muse subreddit, but I would love to have this artwork but done better by an actual artist. This is just a proof of concept rn of the Big 4 albums mashed together into 1, with the mars desert from BHAR, the fork things from OOS (specifically the 20th anniversary version cause that style meshes better with the real life look of the other albums), the space croissant from TW!S and the shadows of ppl getting raptured fro. Absolution. Would someone be able to make this look better?

P.s.: In an ideal world there would be more of the forks from OOS but it was already so hard to get just 1 in I couldn't put more. The idea would be that there's this main fork in the foreground going through the space croissant, and the others would be way in the distance, past that valley, where I didn't put any of the Absolution shadows. If that's too hard to do I get it tho

I know this has been attempted a million times before, but I never quite found a track list that combined those two albums into one that really satisfied me and gave a cohesive and complete album experience. I was excited about the release of KID A MNESIA because I thought we might get an official mix combining the two albums properly, but no, they just play them one after the other.

Something that KID A MNESIA did give us that ended up being extremely useful were the 3 Untitled variations. Armed with those new tracks and remasters of the 2 albums I finally got to work and assembled the perfect, combined track list of both albums that feels like a single, coherent musical journey.

Here's the track list I came up with followed by a justification for each of my decisions when building this double album:

1. Untitled v1

2. Everything In Its Right Place

3. Kid A

4. Pyramid Song

5. Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors

6. Untitled v2

7. The National Anthem

8. How To Disappear Completely

9. You And Whose Army

10. I Might Be Wrong

11. Treefingers

12. Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box

13. Knives Out

14. Optimistic

15. In Limbo

16. Dollars And Cents

17. Hunting Bears

18. Idioteque

19. Untitled v3

20. Like Spinning Plates

21. Morning Bell/Amnesiac

22. Motion Picture Soundtrack

23. Life In A Glasshouse

24. Untitled

Here is a link to a Spotify playlist I made if you want to give it a listen (It's a total of 1h30m, which imo is the best album length that doesn't leave me wanting more without overstaying its welcome)

Why I made it this way

My first design principle was that I wanted to keep every single track from both albums, with the exception of collapsing Morning Bell into one song. I could've kept both versions and done a sort of reprise thing where the Kid A version appears early in the album and gets called back later in the album with the Amnesiac version, but I thought this was a little bit too clunky for what I was trying to do. I'm not writing a musical, I'm making a faux Radiohead album. I'll delve more into why I chose that version when I break down each song placement later on.

My second design principle was that I wanted to have as few extra songs as possible. No B-Sides, no alternates from KID A MNESIA, no extra fluff. The only exception to this was the Untitled songs; those were added because they are relatively short and unobtrusive, and don't feel like individual brand new songs when listening to the playlist as a whole. They also helped a lot with making the experience feel cohesive by bringing in bits of songs from elsewhere in the album and serving as bridges between otherwise more unconventional transitions.

My third design principle was to keep both albums with roughly the same track ordering, and more broadly to avoid having either album overpower the other. This is meant to be a combination album; I did not want it to feel like Kid A + extra songs, or Amnesiac + extra songs. The sanctity of both albums is kept and bend to the same degree, and for that reason I started with a baseline of keeping both albums in the same order but interlacing the songs together, with changes made to that baseline afterwards.

My fourth design principle was cohesion. This was the most important thing to get right and the reason I wanted to do this in the first place; not only should each song flow relatively nicely into one another (with grace being given to songs that start or end abruptly because they otherwise might've transitioned into other songs that didn't fit where I wanted them to), but the album as a whole should feel like a single satisfying journey, with sections that evolve into one another, and avoiding having too many slow, fast, traditional or esotheric songs in a row. This is also why I have opted to bend my second principle and add the Untitled tracks, as they greatly help the journey feel smooth and intentional.

With my mindset going into this design challenge established, here is why I chose to put the songs I did where I did:

• Untitled v1

This was a risky choice. For the longest time, I thought of putting Everything In Its Right Place as the opener, for obvious reasons. While the opener of both albums are good, it is very obvious that Kid A had the opening track nailed a lot better than Amnesiac did. But the thing is that every Untitled track from KID A MNESIA is based on a song from one of the two albums, and this one was based on Kid A. Placing it before that song would completely ruin the flow from Everything In Its Right Place into Kid A, which is perfect in and of itself and deserved to remain intact. Placing it after, tho, would end up putting it too close to Untitled v2 and risk a sort of Untitled fatigue. I wanted those transition tracks to still be roughly spread out throughout the abum. However, it does transition really well into Everything In Its Right Place, and it being a transition piece can make it serve as a sort of overture for the whole playlist. Since it lacks any real melody or beat to latch onto, it ends up opening this combined album beautifully by immersing us into the sonic world of the albums while still refusing to land on anything specific enough to settle on, until that tension is resolved with the first few notes of the following track. As opposed to robbing Everything In Its Right Place of its power as an opener, it sort of gives it a little push to start off, and foreshadows the upcoming Kid A song really well. So, though I know it's controversial, I made the decision to open with this track.

• Everything In Its Right Place, Kid A

Not much to explain here. The two opening songs of Kid A are a perfect opening pair. This was never going to be anything else.

• Pyramid Song, Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors

Putting Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box so close to the beginning created an odd problem where the album felt like it stopped and restarted completely. We build momentum with the first few songs, then immediately stifle it with another opening song, like we didn't trust in the songs we already had so we had a backup. No matter how you slice it, there's no way to avoid that problem. So I've instead opted to move it later in the album. This leaves us with Pyramid Song, which transitions incredibly well from Kid A, even better I'd argue than it does in Amnesiac where its sudden change in vibe from Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box feels a lot more jarring (I'll dig more into that when we get to it later in the track list). We then go into Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors, just like in Amnesiac, which continues the vibe that has been built with Kid A.

• Untitled v2

This Untitled track is based on Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors, and in the original track list of KID A MNESIA actually comes right after the True Love Waits version of that song. A perfect wind down from the song and a great way to transition us back from Amnesiac to Kid A again.

• The National Anthem, How To Disappear Completely

The National Anthem follows really naturally from Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors and Untitled v2, so this is the obvious spot for it. For How To Disappear Completely, however, I'd originally placed it much later in the track list. I tend to prefer to save the best songs to the latter half of the track lists I make so that you spend more time anticipating it than being bummed it's over, so it was a very difficult decision to bring it back to its original position in Kid A. I originally liked it as part of the finale gauntlet leading up to the end of the track list, but, ultimately, it simply didn't fit as well there as it does here, and since my goal is to make the best possible track list I sometimes have to sacrifice cool ideas for the sake of a better overall experience.

• You And Whose Army, I Might Be Wrong

I was a bit worried at first that How To Disappear Completely into You And Whose Army would be too many slow songs in a row, but in practice it doesn't feel this way at all. Both songs are slow and filled with despair, but in completely different ways, and putting them next to eachother actually ends up highlighting that contrast in a very interesting way. It also allows us to sit in this slower state for longer and makes I Might Be Wrong a slightly more satisfying return of energy (if you can call it that).

• Treefingers

Honestly, when I was building this tracklist and got to this point, I knew that was the perfect spot for Treefingers. It just flows so naturally and provides good respite before we continue on our journey. I was really hoping to push this a little bit closer to the midpoint of the tracklist so I could actually split this into 2 discs, but it just felt forced when I tried to do that. No, this really is the best spot for it. And it transitions perfectly into the next song.

• Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box

And finally, we arrive at the opening to Amnesiac. After the momentum reset of Treefingers, there is no better spot for this track; and it would've been difficult to fit anywhere else. This is the only spot where it actually feels like a natural continuation of everything that's been built so far as opposed to a hard reset with a song that is clearly meant to open the tracklist.

• Knives Out

So, it's finally time to adress my controversial opinion from earlier. In the original song order of Amnesiac, I think Pyramid Song is a bad follow up to Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box. We open the album with this experimental sound then immediately enter a song that opens with piano. Weird piano, granted, but still, it feels jarring. However, in this case, because we've had the space to breathe and try different songs with different levels of experimentation vs traditional instrumentation, and especially since Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box was preceded by the experimental Treefingers, a more traditional instrumentation actually does feel like a natural progression and a breath of fresh air. This is the right spot for Knives Out.

• Optimistic, In Limbo

I obviously could never separate these two songs. Not much to say here, naturally progressed from Knives Out and transition well into the next song, this is the right spot for these two tracks.

• Dollars And Cents, Hunting Bears

My first version of this track list saw the two albums interlaced in such a way that both versions of Morning Bell appeared at roughly the same time, which was very satisfying, however it left the first half of the tracklist feeling very Kid A heavy and the second half feeling very Amnesiac heavy, which I wanted to avoid. Eventually, I've had to resign myself to move Morning Bell later within the expected order of Amnesiac so it can work in tandem with the other closing tracks. So, instead, we here have Dollars And Cents, which feels like the most natural progression to the jazz influences of In Limbo. Hunting Bears then gives us a nice little break before the next track.

• Idioteque

I found this song to be the best possible follow up to Hunting Bears, and it's the perfect track to set up the closing quarter of the track list.

• Untitled v3

Unfortunately, this title track is extremely difficult to make flow anywhere in the album, because it starts with about half a second of Alt. Fast Track which appears before it in KID A MNESIA. So wherever it ended up being put was always going to be jarring. However, with the incessant 808 beat of Idioteque, this kind of jarring transition surprisingly works. This Untitled track, like the other Untitled tracks, is based on a different song from one of the two albums, in this case it's the latter half of Motion Picture Soundtrack. This becomes an obvious problem seeing as the original Untitled as it appears on Kid A is also based on Motion Picture Soundtrack, but the first half. As a result, since I didn't want the Untitled tracks to be too close to eachother, I've had to separate this one quite a bit from its matching song. Instead, both Untitled v3 and Untitled serve as bookends to the last few songs of the track list, the songs that feel like the ending and that draw the whole experience to a close, the beautiful arpeggios slowly fading into the next song and setting up the flow for the rest of the track list.

• Like Spinning Plates

Originally Morning Bell was actually before this one, but Like Spinning Plates ended up transitioning so well from Untitled v3, and it felt slightly less like an ending track than Morning Bell, so it ended up flowing better in this order. This is the start of the end.

• Morning Bell/Amnesiac

One of the hardest decisions I've had to make for this track list is which version of Morning Bell to use. My original plan was to use the In The Dark version from KID A MNESIA to avoid showing favoritism to one album or the other, but the lack of lyrics and abrupt opening made it impossible in the end. So I had to choose between the Kid A or the Amnesiac version. And, although my heart is set on the beautiful 5/4 groove of the original, ultimately the sound that works best at this point in the track list is the haunting chords and chants of the Amnesiac version.

• Motion Picture Soundtrack, Life In A Glasshouse, Untitled

These 3 songs were the very first to be locked in place when making this track list, and the idea of ending the album with them is what convinced me to attempt to do this in the first place. Both albums have perfect endings, I think anyone can agree on that. So I had to find a way of making it feel like both final songs were simultaneously ending the track list; and, since Untitled is so intricately connected to Motion Picture Soundtrack, sliding Life In A Glasshouse in the middle turned out to be the perfect solution, making the entire trio feel like one epic final song. Usually, when I finish either album, I'm still hungry for more; but, with this track list and this mammoth of an ending, I genuinely can do nothing else but sit in silence for a bit because nothing can follow this up. This is the best ending I could come up with, and in my opinion, it perfectly closes this entire journey in a satisfying bow.

So what do you guys think? Is there anything you'd change? Do you have your own versions of combined track listings for these two albums?

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