PAC2018 track listing is finalized! It clocks in at 1:18:10 with only seventeen songs, definitely the fewest tracks ever and potentially the shortest runtime (i don't currently have access to my statistics spreadsheet or i'd know that for sure). If you're checking the math you'll notice that this means there are definitely a few very long songs on there this year; without getting too spoilery i will go ahead and admit that one song is nearly eight and a half minutes long. There are two others that are over six. I would never have allowed this in previous years, but i guess things really do change.
I started with 47 tracks in my pool this year, which was probably the most selection i've ever started with. So thirty tracks didn't make the cut. Granted, it's mostly because a lot of these are bands that i'm not intimately familiar with; in fact out of the seventeen i had only even heard of six of them a year ago, and therefore had dropped several tracks by some bands onto the playlist before narrowing down my favorites. Dance With The Dead is probably the most notable; i can't overstate how important that band was to me this year. I really wanted to do two of their songs on the comp, but in the end no bands got duplicated this year. Probably for the best. Also, i've continued the trend from last year of having only one band that's previously appeared on a PAC at all. Last year it was The Sounds.
Another interesting thing: this year i've gone for a deliberate structure to the sequencing. It'll be obvious what i've done once you start listening but, again, i don't want to give away too much right now.
Last little nugget for now: i started with three separate songs titled Neo Tokyo. I thought it would be funny to include them all, but in the end only one made it.
Oh, i guess one more interesting thing that i definitely didn't do on purpose, it just kind of happened: there are exactly zero male vocals this year. From the first year of Poor-Ass Christmas, which had only one female-fronted track to now, that balance has gradually but steadily shifted the other way. And now here we are. I'm not sure what this means, if anything. Probably just that i've replaced all of the nu-metal i used to listen to with riot grrl by now.
Now to get started on the art.
EDIT: Confirmed, this is the shortest PAC runtime yet, coming in at 11 seconds below 2016, 37 seconds less than 2005, and fully a minute under any other year.
