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Post by The Curmudgeon on Sept 7, 2014 11:49:42 GMT 2
 Hey, I'm not above using a tedious old meme to prove a point. I have no standards. Anyway, I was listening to (the otherwise superb) White Blood Cells album by the White Stripes, something I haven't listened to in a few years. And the same thing happened as always happens - my interest really started to fade after the 12th track.. and there was still four songs to go. I remember not understanding a criticism of an album being TOO long. Surely the more songs the better?? But now I agree, too many songs just make the album too much to sit through and stop it being just perfect. Ryan Adam's Gold remains one of my favourite albums.. for about the first 11 tracks. It's got six songs and another thirty minutes and I'm straight tapping out. What about you? Do you have any albums that could do with a significant trimming? |
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Post by trashcanman on Sept 7, 2014 19:02:45 GMT 2
I usually use Master of Puppets as an example here. It's a stone classic album with several of Metallica's best and most recognizable songs, but by the end of it I'm over it. It's not even an hour long, but it feels longer because after a slew of perfection in the first 4 tracks, the songs get longer and not as good. Disposable Heroes goes at least two choruses too long and becomes annoyingly repetitive, Leper Messiah is just okay, Orion is a great instrumental, but it's 8 minutes long and moody so it doesn't really seem to fit in with the rest of the album, and the last track feels tacked on after that. It's probably more of an issue of pacing than length, but compare it with Ride the Lightning, which was a little less than 10 minutes shorter and feels like a masterpiece every minute you're listening.
Another is Mr Bungle's debut album which takes up about every minute a CD can hold at an hour and thirteen minutes. The whole thing is great, but given Mr. Bungle's insane style of mashing every possible musical genre they can come up with into every fucking song, it's absolutely exhausting to listen to all the way through. All of the tracks but one are over 6 minutes, and two of them are over ten and are it's all full of ska/metal/funk/jazz/rap/carousel weirdness.
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Post by The Curmudgeon on Sept 12, 2014 13:30:34 GMT 2
It's a more common problem now with new albums as well, and "bonus tracks" that get tacked on at the end of new LP's that, while great (more songs!) sometimes make albums fucking d-r-a-g on. I know a lot of purists that hate classic album re-issues that stick bonus tracks at the end of the record because it kills the original flow of the album or something.
Jesus, an eight minute instrumental in the middle of an album sounds like death to me. SKIP.
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Post by trashcanman on Sept 12, 2014 20:27:12 GMT 2
I love bonus tracks, though. I consider them like special features on a DVD. Like it's what you listen to after the main event is over and so often there are great tracks you'd never get around to hearing otherwise. Here's an interesting thing: Lana Del Rey's new album only has 11 tracks or so on the official release, but there are four more on the iTunes version. And it's a better album with those extra tracks, which make the length a staggering 70 minutes. That's a lot of fucking LDR to take, but it really doesn't feel that long to me.
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