One of my favorites songs from Arcade Fire’s highly regarded 2005 album, Funeral, is ‘Haiti’. At the end of the track, the drum beat slowly transitions into the start of the next song, ‘Rebellion’. The way the tracks are cut up on the album allows ‘Rebellion’ to sound just fine when played alone. For ‘Haiti’, however, the effort to make ‘Rebellion’ stand alone comes at the cost of a rather abrupt ending. If someone listening to ‘Haiti’ for the first time did so using a music streaming service and the next song on was anything but ‘Rebellion’, this listener would be forgiven for wondering if someone had prematurely stopped ‘Haiti’.
I first noticed this a few years ago when I heard ‘Haiti’ played over the speakers in a bar. As the song approached its end, I prepared for the transition into ‘Rebellion’. The song slowed, then the drums for ‘Rebellion’ kicked in, then…
Nothing! Or I should say, a new song by a different band. This was ridiculous (though no one around me seemed very concerned). How could it be allowed in the 21st century for a two-part song to be played without its better half?
Is there a (reasonable) solution? There is not, at least to my knowledge. I suppose in these cases regulation sometimes comes in (though regulation tends to focus on more petty matters such as life and death, health and wealth, etc). Still, I hold out hope one day for ‘The Haiti Rule’ - it would declare no two songs with a ‘swerve lane’ are allowed apart when played in public.
Who knows? With this current administration, anything seems possible. Maybe someone can convince President Trump that ‘The Haiti Rule’ would be an important foreign policy accomplishment? I'm sure he could work it into his next tax cut if absolutely necessary...
Until the happy day when the federal government intervenes, however, I suppose the onus falls to our musicians. Bands could get around this problem by refusing to split linked tracks on albums. If the rumors are to be believed, the album is dead, anyway. The time for Funeral is almost gone, the time for a funeral is almost here...
So, bands of the 21st century, why not record longer tracks on your upcoming albums? No one believes those 'play count' tallies, anyway, and this way, everyone wins: if bands start recording album-length singles, we can all start listening to albums again without sacrificing our coolness factor on social media...
