This post focuses on ideas for choosing the track order of an album.
You’ve completed your songs, all the details are done, the mixes are smashing, and you’re ready for mastering. But wait… we need to arrange these things somehow! An often overlooked and often very arbitrary step in the production process, track order can literally make or break a release. Countless albums simply run out of steam by having either too little variety or too many of the strongest tracks in the first half of the album. It’s very important to have a good variety of moods, keys, and tempos throughout. I’m going to organize this post by philosophy and general practices.
