by Scott DeVarenne » Tue Mar 27, 2012 11:55 pm
I have never released a collection of songs. I have thrown together maybe 4 "mix-tapes". So hey, what do I know? But here are my thoughts-
Make a list of the songs. Beside each song write:
Tempo and time signature
Key/dominant chords
Instrumentation depth. Scale 1-5, with 1 being the most sparse, 5 being the full meal deal.
General mood or theme.
The list won't tell you how to sequence the songs but can help you become conscious of and keep track of commonalities.
I have no advice regarding where to place what you feel are your strongest songs. I will assume that all of the songs are recorded, rough mixed, or at least demoed. If not, do it. Do some normalizing, compressing, whatever, to get the songs in the same ballpark, volume-wise. Create a playlist. Start listening and shuffling the songs around. Spend some time just listening to the ends and beginnings, trying different combinations. You'll find some songs transition into the next in a very pleasing manner. Assuming that you aim to please, let those pleasant combinations influence your decisions regarding song sequence.
The list that I suggested making can help with choices regarding pairs or clusters of songs with similar attributes. If you find that you have several songs that are in G major @120 bpm, then you may not want all those songs together (even though they may transition nicely into each other). Same goes for songs in 3/4. Maybe you do want the album to start with 2 kickers and end with 2 tearjerkers, and everything in the middle alternating fast/slow, major/minor, happy/sad, sex/drugs. Maybe you want the album to have "parts", such as Pt1 love, Pt2 love lost, Pt3 television.
Maybe just alphabetical order.(?)