Nowadays the notion of the full-length album is almost something of a relic. Sure, plenty of artists still write, record, and release albums, but more and more often we’ll see folks who drop music as an EP at a time, or maybe several standalone singles over the span of a year or two as opposed to crafting and perfecting one LP. This isn’t to say that the quality in musical output these days has diminished, but there is just something special about the immersive listening experience that a full-length album can provide, especially when it’s ordered in the right way. Think LP’s like Pink Floyd’s The Wall: I have found that a lot of my favorite releases over the last several years have fallen under this category, where one song will flow perfectly into the next and I initially don’t even realize this transition has happened and I’m listening to a new track. This can happen in the context of an entire album, yes, but I’ve noticed that it occurs quite a bit more often in two- or three-song groupings, even when the rest of the album may not follow this same flow. So, with that in mind, here are some of my favorite musical segues.

MUTEMATH: “Collapse,” “Typical,” and “After We Have Left Our Homes”

This three-song stretch not only kicks off MUTEMATH’s seminal self-titled debut but does so in phenomenal fashion. While “Typical” is the only full song sandwiched in between the album intro “Collapse” and the equally-brief interlude “After We Have Left Our Homes,” the three tracks together form this massive six-minute tune that really sums up what listeners are about to experience in the next hour or so of Mutemath.

Dave Matthews Band: “#41” and “Say Goodbye”

Crash is still my favorite Dave Matthews Band album, due in part to the fact that it features my favorite DMB song, the gloriously expansive live staple “#41.” Its immediate successor on the album, “Say Goodbye,” is relatively different from “#41,” so it would seem unlikely that the two tracks would go together, but that is exactly what happens. Thanks to the late LeRoi Moore providing a lush flute solo that lives right in the margins, the end of “#41” and the beginning of “Say Goodbye” will forever be linked together in my mind.

Pink Floyd: “Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 1,” “The Happiest Days of Our Lives,” and “Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2”

It would have been insane of me to namedrop The Wall at the beginning of this article and then proceed to leave out any and all examples from the Pink Floyd classic, so in some ways this feels a bit like a formality. However, I have always found this particular three-track stint really cool for as long as I’ve known about the record, partly because “The Happiest Days of Our Lives” is the perfect link between parts one and two, and also because it is included in the music video for the latter. In fact, for the longest time, the music video made me think that “The Happiest Days of Our Lives” was a part of part two. That is, until I went back and listened to the album on Spotify years ago, noticing the song titles. Talk about a mind-blowing experience.

Panic! At The Disco: “But It’s Better If You Do” and “I Write Sins Not Tragedies”

Everyone knows “I Write Sins Not Tragedies.” For the longest time it was easily considered Panic! At The Disco’s most popular song, and while I suppose it can be argued that this is no longer the case ever since “High Hopes” blew up a few years ago, most would still agree that it’s their most iconic. What some folks may have forgotten though is the fact that there’s actually more to it: “But It’s Better If You Do” immediately precedes “I Write Sins…” and is set in the same key and roughly the same tempo. Stellar strings act as the glue bonding these two tracks together, to the point where it feels wrong not to play them back to back.

Hembree: “I Don’t Know Why” and “Culture”

When I reviewed Hembree’s 2019 full-length debut House On Fire, I noted the feeling of climax that stems from the first notes of the album’s chilling opener. While I stand by that statement, what I find even more impressive is the smooth, seamless synth line that closes out “I Don’t Know Why” and perfectly ushers in the grooving, pulsing second track “Culture.”

Manchester Orchestra: “The Moth” and “Lead, SD”

There are many reasons why Manchester Orchestra’s fifth studio effort, the concept album set in South Dakota mining town Lead, is still one of their best. One of the main reasons for this is the sheer contrast from track to track. Of course, arguably the most memorable moment from A Black Mile to the Surface is two of the Atlanta-based indie rockers’ most intense, visceral compositions being placed back to back. “The Moth” and the album’s namesake “Lead, SD” are still significantly different, and yet, this ever-so-subtle background sound near the end of “The Moth” is what brings them together and keeps it that way.

twenty one pilots: “Jumpsuit” and “Levitate”

Trench served as the first full-scale collaboration between twenty one pilots and MUTEMATH main man Paul Meany, so it makes sense that track two, “Levitate,” would harken back to early MM, and while the brief rap rocker had all this going for it, track one took the cake (and still does) for the heaviest twenty one pilots song released yet. It is an unlikely pairing for many reasons, but a sleek, eerie synth line at the end of “Jumpsuit” serves as the perfect connector between it and “Levitate,” making them feel like one single song with two distinct parts.

The Maine: “Bad Behavior,” “Lovely,” and “Black Butterflies and Déjà Vu”

It’s undeniable that “Bad Behavior” and “Black Butterflies and Déjà Vu” are two distinctly different rock tunes, each one equally solid in its own right, but what makes them so special together on Lovely Little Lonely starts at the very end of “Bad Behavior” as a simple outro. This outro launches into interlude track “Lovely,” which flourishes ever-so-briefly until it culminates with the very beginning of “Black Butterflies and Déjà Vu.”

Moses Sumney: “Virile,” “Conveyor,” and “boxes”

Much of Moses Sumney’s 2020 sophomore studio effort græ is focused on the full listening experience, with many of the tracks from the two-disc, twenty-track opus melding together rather seamlessly. This is especially true on part one, with many of the disc’s twelve tracks flowing right into the next. The rise and eventual fall of “Virile” makes way for another equally-potent rise-and-fall on “Conveyor,” which itself soon fades into interlude cut “boxes.” It’s not the only stunning example of continuity on græ, but it’s certainly one of them.

The Beatles: “Mean Mr. Mustard,” “Polythene Pam,” and “She Came In Through the Bathroom Window”

Obviously the vast majority of Abbey Road’s B side could easily fall into this category, as eight of its eleven (ten?) tracks belong to this medley, but the three-song run of “Mean Mr. Mustard,” “Polyethene Pam,” and “She Came In Through the Bathroom Window” feels like the medley’s true midpoint. It’s a classic moment to pinpoint from an even more classic album.

I realize this list is only scratching the surface of all of the spectacular musical segues out there in the world. After all, the point of this exercise wasn’t to be fully exhaustive, but rather to give you an idea of some of the songs that fit this mold and have also impacted me on a more individualized level, in addition to hopefully jogging your memory of other great musical moments that fit this criteria. That said, I’d love to make this a bit of a regular thing, so if you have any suggestions of great musical segues that you think I missed, please let me know in the comments. And of course, be sure to check out the Spotify playlist of all of these picks below.