Artificial truth

I'm a huge fan of navidrome, and thus spent some time reading its source code, and discussing with Deluan about its data model, making this list of weird edge-cases as we went.

• Weird album names:
  • † from Justice
  • ★ from David Bowie
  • ' from Frank Zappa
  • () from Sigur Rós
  • Love Symbol from Prince, of course.
  • <|°_°|> from Caravan Palace
  • Microsoft's Windows might dislike the naming scheme of MASTER BOOT RECORD's albums.
  • If you're on Linux, you might appreciate ///////-//-///// from The You Suck Flying Circus.
  • Apparently, the vapowave movement genre artists like to put spaces between each letter, like on Hallmark '87 A T R I U M.
  • Laughing Mantis released a song called X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*, also known as the EICAR test file
• Albums without a title, like Rammstein's latest album, Led Zeppelin's fourth album, KoЯn's eighth album, …
• Confusing album names:
  • (untitled) from The Byrds
  • untitled from R Kelly
  • untilted from Autechre
  • Self-Titled Long-Playing Debut Album from +/-.
  • Tintern Abbey's 7" Vinyl single A-side is named Beeside.
  • Weezer released a couple of albums titled Weezer, sometimes twice a year.
  • Underoath released an album called Ø (Disambiguation), making the wikipedia page for Ø (disambiguation) confusing.
• Some tracks don't have a title or have a confusing name:
  • Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume II.
  • Mezbrow's Yantra Material Action
  • Autechre's EP7 has anm untitled track, as well as one called "Left Blank".
• Some tracks are long:
  • "Doom Apocalypse X, The Ultimate Fate Of The Universe (Part IX: The Photon Era)" from NǽnøĉÿbbŒrğ VbëřřĦōlökäävsŦ, lasting almost 7h, with the full album, "The Ultimate Fate Of The Universe" a bit under 23h.
  • The Rise and Fall of Bossanova from Pipe Choir Three, a 13 hours long song split in 5 parts.
• Speaking of size, some albums' name are long as well:
  • Prajecyrujučy Sinhuliarnaje Wypramieńwańnie Daktryny Absaliutnaha J Usiopahłynaĺnaha Zła Skroź Šaścihrannuju Pryzmu Sîn-Ahhī-Erība Na Hipierpawierchniu Zadyjakaĺnaha Kaŭčęha Zasnawaĺnikaŭ Kosmatęchničnaha Ordęna Palieakantakta, Najstaražytnyja Ipastasi Dawosiewych Cywilizacyj Prywodziać U Ruch Ręzanansny Transfarmatar Časowapadobnaj Biaskoncaści Budučyni U Ćwiardyniach Absierwatoryi Nwn-Hu-Kek-Amon, Uwasabliajučy Ŭ Ęfirnuju Matęryju Prach Ałulima Na Zachad Ad Ękzapłaniety from Eximperituserqethhzebibšiptugakkathšulweliarzaxułum
  • When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks Like a King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight and He'll Win the Whole Thing 'fore He Enters the Ring There's No Body to Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might So When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand and Remember That Depth Is the Greatest of Heights and If You Know Where You Stand, Then You Know Where to Land and If You Fall It Won't Matter, Cuz You'll Know That You're Right, from Fiona Apple.
• Tracks can have multiple artists, like GRAY (그레이) (Feat. Various Artists) - 119 REMIX which has, of course, 119 different ones.
• Some bands are kinda changing their name:
  • GZR, also known as g//z/r on their first album, geezer on their second, and GZR on their third.
  • Ghost was known as Ghost B.C. for some times, like but only in the USA.
  • Suede, known as "The London Suede" in the USA.
  • Zoviet France, also known as ":$OVIET:FRANCE:", "Soviet France", ":Zoviet-France:" and latterly usually written as ":zoviet*france:".
  • Invent, Animate changed their name to "Invent, Animate" to avoid being confused for 2 distinct artists. Their latest EP, The Sun Sleeps, As If It Never Was, consists of 3 tracks: "The Sun Sleeps, "," and "As If It Never Was".
• Some artists have several names:
  • Aphex Twin, also known as Blue Calx (not to be confused witht the other Blue Calx), Caustic Window, Brian Tregaskin, The Dice Man, Soit - P.P, Smojphace, Rutchkfard Games, Phonic Boy On Dope, Polygon Window, Power-Pill, Q-Chastic, Ricardo Jamiro, Richard D. James, Karen Tregaskin, GAK, The Tuss, user48736353001, and Bradley Strider.
  • Filipe Santos
• Some bands have confusing names:
  • The The, so much for skipping articles like "A" or "The" I guess.
  • The Band
  • Artist Unknown
  • Unknown Artist
  • !!!
  • The 8 different bands called Live
  • The dozen bands called LP
• Some tracks have confusing names, on purpose, like every single one on Drumkoon's They Tried To Ban This album.
• Some albums are known under several names:
  • Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs from Ministry, whose real name is ΚΕΦΑΛΗΞΘ
  • The Beatles, known as "The White Album".
  • Ozzy Osbourne's Speak of the Devil was released as "Talk of the Devil" in the UK.
  • Songs Of Inaudible Trucks And Cars from Ozma was released as Songs Of Audible Trucks & Cars, when it was put up for distribution on MP3.com, because the character restriction kept them from having the whole original title.
• Most albums have several versions/releases:
  • The Eminem Show with its 15 versions
  • All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling by Efrim Menuck, under the name God Speed You Black Emperor! released on cassette in 1994 on cassette with 27 tracks, re-released in 2022 with 4 tracks, and the bootleg version with 31 tracks. Oh, and also the band changed their name from "Godspeed You Black Emperor!" to "Godspeed You! Black Emperor" in 2002.
  • Sybreed's Japanese edition of Antares has 12 tracks, with the 11^th being "Technocracy", while the USA version also has 12 tracks, but the 11^th is "Plasmaterial". The Russian edition only has 11 tracks like the Swiss promo one, but the European promo version only has 8.
  • The Art of Noise released 4 UK versions of their Close-Up single with the same catalogue number and the same sleeve, but with different tracks, including a version that didn't even contain the track "Close-Up".
• Licensing issues are annoying:
  • MF DOOM released MM..FOOD in 2004, and a re-recorded versionn in 2007 due to an uncleared Sesame Street Sample.
• Different bands may have the same name.
  • Take "Emperor" for example. It could be:
    • The Norwegian black metal band Emperor,
    • The Drum'n'bass producer Emperor,
    • The Trance artist Emperor,
    • The Japanese Metal band Emperor, originally named Rommel, not to be confused with Rommel from Japan.
    • The virtual penguin hip-hop artist in the world of Arknights Emperor,
    • The Emperor, an hip-hop artist,
    • The Emperors, but the 60s rock band,
    • The Emperors, but the 60s blues band,
    • The Emperors, but the 90s rock band,
    • Havamal could refer to the Viking metal band or to, well, the other Viking metal band.
  • Or Bulldog Breed. It could be the one from the UK who released an album called Made in England, or the one from the UK who released an album called Made in England.
  • Avishai Cohen, the Jazz musician from Israel, and Avishai Cohen, the Jazz musician from Israel.
  • Common "cool" names like Revolver, Peace, Hybrid, End, …
• Internationalisation is hard, like for Пётр Ильич Чайковский (Tchaikovsky) and his 31 different names on musicbrainz.
• Some artists will benchmark your utf8 support:
  • Spın̈al Tap and their dotless i and metal umlaut for the n-diaresis.
  • ⣎⡇ꉺლ༽இ•̛)ྀ◞ ༎ຶ ༽ৣৢ؞ৢ؞ؖ ꉺლ , with their horribly named EP. Notice how the characters are drooling all over the wikipedia page. They're also known as 00110100 01010100, which is "4T" in ascii.
  • GOTO 80's Files in space awful titles.
  • KEYGEN CHURCH's made two eloquently named albums: "░█░█░░█░█░█░" and "░ ▒ ▓ █".
  • Magma and their Kobaïan made-up language featuring some custom diacritics that don't exist in utf8.
  • Aphex Twin has a track named ∆Mᵢ⁻¹=−α ∑ Dᵢ[η][ ∑ Fjᵢ[η−1]+Fextᵢ [η⁻¹]].
  • Qebrus' ᐔ ᐌ ᐂ ᐍ ᐚ and its horrible track list. Heck, his whole discography is horrible in this regard.
• My favourite: a band named brouillard, with a single member called brouillard, whose every single album is named brouillard, and of course, so is every single track.

Take a look at Musicbrainz' database schema to have a glimpse on how to tame this madness.