6: Dr Dre – ‘Bitches Ain’t Shit’

Find it on: ‘The Chronic’, after the last track.

Loitering unlisted at the end of ‘The Chronic’ like the zieg heilers they try to keep at the back of Free Tommy Robinson marches, ‘Bitches Ain’t Shit’ was a sumptuous slice of Olympic level sexism that’s almost as memorable as Ben Folds’ emotional piano ballad version.

7: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – ‘Poor Song’

Find it on: ‘Fever To Tell’, after ‘Modern Romance’

The hidden track is often an excuse for an otherwise effervescent and energised band to kick back and slip a downbeat moment onto a wild-ass record without killing the pace. The CD DJ’s worst nightmare, in other words, but it can work wonders, as on Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ debut ‘Fever To Tell’. The plaintive, porcelain-fragile ‘Poor Song’ tacked secretly onto the end of ‘Modern Romance’ exposed the maudlin underbelly they’d scratch to full effect on ‘It’s Blitz!’. Bless.

8: Beach House – ‘Wherever You Go’

Find it on: ‘Bloom’, after the final track

Few hidden tracks seem out of place tucked under the carpet rather than taking pride of place on the album’s official track list, but it’s odd indeed that Beach House chose to hide away the lustrous, amorphous ‘Wherever You Go’ seven minutes after the end of 2012’s ‘Bloom’. Many thanks to whoever posted it on YouTube accompanied by scenes of cheesy B-movie gore.

9: Beck – ‘Diamond Bollocks’

Find it on: ‘Mutations’, at the end

Presumably how Beck is known down the Millwall – “here comes that ‘Ansen bloke, bloody Diamond Bollocks” – this wonky six minutes mucked about with pastoral ’60s Merseybeat, psychedelic rock, alien wildlife noises and a drummer overdosing on steroids at the end of 1998’s ‘Mutations’. The sort of experimental free-for-all that the superfluous space at the end of a CD was made for.

10: Eels – ‘Mr E’s Beautiful Blues’

Find it on: ‘Daisies Of The Galaxy’, at the end

Hidden track as commercial suicide? Why hello, Mark Oliver Everett. Having had his biggest hit in three years with the breezy calypso surf pop of ‘Mr E’s Beautiful Blues’, a week later he bunged it unlisted onto 2000’s ‘Daisies Of The Galaxy’ album as the secret track, as if daring his new generation of fans not to buy it. Crazy/beautiful.

The post Remember the ’90s fad for ‘hidden tracks’ on CDs? Here are 10 of the best from Nirvana, Blur, Dre and more (and where to find them) appeared first on NME.