I believe the reason for the new running order was partly because they wanted it to flow more as one piece rather than two complete individual pieces put together, but also (maybe more) because they added three new tracks to give people some incentive to buy the Full Power release (they also released those tracks on the Make Some Noise EP so people didn’t have to buy the two disc set to get all of the new songs).
I believe it was four new songs from the EP:
Make Some Noise
Seen Better Days
Edgelands
The Lovers
The EP also included two new edits - "Keeper Of Abbeys (Branch Line Edition)" and "Curator Of Butterflies (Branch Line Edition)", only available on the EP.
I picked up English Electric Full Power a month or two ago and it's become one of me all-time favorites. I assumed the first half was part one and the second half part two. But I was just looking around on their Bandcamp site, and it appears that's not the case. It looks like they just mixed the two albums together and created a completely different running order. I find it interesting that they did that.
Did you get the 2016 remaster? I got the original 2013 limited edition digibook (which comes with a
THICK 96-page booklet inside the case, making it one of the thickest digibook albums I own), but last year I acquired the 2016 remaster digitally and the dynamic range was definitely improved. That isn't to say the original 2013 version is a brick-walled mess, but the remaster brings the songs closer in line with their post-EE albums in terms of DR.
As for the running order, once EEFP was released, I all but abandoned listening to the individual EE albums and stuck with the Full Power version. It's just nice to have all 19 songs in one go, and with the new order and segues, it just flows to perfectly from start to finish. Making "East Coast Racer" the penultimate track was a brilliant move, and I like how they kept "Hedgerow" and "Curator Of Butterflies" as the closing tracks of each half. The album is incredibly well-balanced and is probably one of my top 10 albums of all time.
In other BBT news, reviews for WTTP have been coming in, and for the couple that I've read, it seems that reviewers have really enjoyed the album although something about the closing title-track seems a bit off for some. We're just 12 days from release, so I'm avoiding reading too many more reviews so I can at least appreciate the last three unheard songs with some fresh ears. I've actually not really listened to any BBT so far this year in an effort to dive back into them when WTTP comes out, despite having already heard 6 of the album's 9 songs.
-Marc.