Albums with Transitions That Make Shuffling Feel Like a Loss

Keep “Hot Stuff” running after the guitar-driven hook, and the pulse carries you into the title track’s whistles and answering voices. The change in the foreground is easy to hear because there’s still a beat to hang on to. Start with the original album versions to hear how well the two singles work as one stretch of dancing.

Listen to the kick at the end of “CUFF IT.” It helps carry the disco groove across the point where the bass and voices reshape it into “ENERGY,” featuring BEAM. On their own the two songs set up different rhythms. Back to back, it sounds like the same party finding another way to move.

The full-band sound at the end of “Have a Cigar” suddenly shrinks to something coming from a radio. Follow the dial turning into “Wish You Were Here,” where the thin guitar sound has a much closer guitar playing alongside it. Heard in order, the effect makes you notice the distance between the two instruments.

A small repeating figure is the first sound you hear in “Movement 1,” and it’s still there as “Movement 2” gets under way. Keeping the two movements together lets you hear how Pharoah Sanders’s saxophone phrases change against a background you already know. The new track feels like another breath in the same piece.

When the title song introduces Billy Shears, the crowd noise leads into Ringo Starr’s vocal on “With a Little Help from My Friends.” The audience is part of the handoff. It turns what could sound like two unrelated songs into a band introduction followed by its first featured singer.

The long vocal and guitar build of “The Prophet’s Song” winds down into a delicate instrumental exchange that carries the album into “Love of My Life.” Listen for the difference between the receding guitar and the piano and harp that take over. The ballad’s scale is part of the surprise after the song that leads to it.

When the last electric-guitar chord of “Holiday” hangs in the air, the quieter, pulsing start of “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” follows it. The album goes from an outward shout to the sound of someone walking alone. Some digital versions place both songs in one file, so start with the full album sequence.

On the original studio album, the singing in “The End.” gives way to a thin, sustained tone and the rush of the band launching into “Dead!” The sudden volume change works because the preceding track takes time setting up the room. Play the two as the opening scene of the album.

The hard-edged “Broken” contains a melodic figure you’ll recognize when “Head Over Heels” begins. Stay with that song long enough and a live reprise of “Broken” comes back into view. On the album, the big pop chorus sits inside a sequence that keeps showing you a different side of the same musical idea.

“King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1” starts close to the voice and guitar, then adds other instruments as it goes. Parts two and three pick up with a slowly gathering drone under the next vocal, then burst into a much louder band passage. Let all three parts run and the change in scale has somewhere to start from.

“Son et Lumière” gives a voice and a few thin, wavering sounds just enough room to make the full-band entrance of “Inertiatic ESP” hit hard. The two tracks work as a single change in scale. Starting with the second one alone takes away the brief stretch in which you’re trying to work out what you’re hearing.

The voices at the end of “Don’t Get Lost in Heaven” give way to the more spacious opening of “Demon Days.” The choir becomes part of the scale of the finale, and the title song has room to build from a much softer start. Together the two tracks turn a small warning into something communal.

“Faster” rolls almost straight into “Locked Inside.” Listen to how the tight, quick rhythm keeps the pressure on as the vocal and melody change. It feels like the singer is still in motion when the next situation comes into view. Starting with “Dance or Die” gives you the whole run of three connected songs.

“Fly on a Windshield” grows from a quiet entrance to a heavy, repeating band figure. It’s still pushing forward when “Broadway Melody of 1974” brings in another rush of words from Peter Gabriel. The track boundary is a poor place to step in because the instrumental pressure has already been building for a while. For separate track markers, use the 50th-anniversary remaster. Some older CDs place the start of “Broadway Melody of 1974” under “Fly on a Windshield.”

The train-like rhythm on “Trans-Europe Express” keeps going as “Metal on Metal” brings the sharper strikes to the front. What sounded like accompaniment becomes the reason to keep listening. Use an English-language album sequence with both titles in order, since editions can divide the later part of the suite differently.

Leave the title track playing into “Stay Another Season” and listen for how the busy samples give way to new voices without a full stop in the dance pulse. It’s an early lesson in how The Avalanches use the spaces between tracks. The next scene arrives while the first one still feels close behind you.

“Sweet Thing” opens out around Bowie’s singing, then the guitar and drums in “Candidate” make the passage feel more urgent. Stay for “Sweet Thing (Reprise),” where the tune returns after that middle section has unsettled it. The track marks let you find the pieces of one performance that is worth hearing whole.

As the “Overture” comes down to a quieter guitar passage, “It’s a Boy” brings a sung line into the space it leaves. The album goes from introducing musical themes to beginning the story, without having to stop and announce the change. Use the Who’s original 1969 studio album for this sequence.