Can albums be too long ??

Albums can definitely be too long. Just like writing, I value concision over long and never-ending rambles full of unneeded words. If you have 80 minutes on an album, you can probably cut at least 10-20 minutes off and make an album much stronger. It's like an edited paper rather than an essay full of BS.

Edited by Kestrel - July 27 2009 at 01:56

As long as the overall quality of a long album is good, I don't see a problem. The problem is however, that a long album of the same overall quality as a shorter album is much more difficult to create. So shorter albums tend to be better most of the time.

I only see problems in an album length when the artist decides that he must fill the whole CD capacity just because it is available. If the artist has 80-minute worth music, he can fill the CD, but if he fills the cds with tracks that would be left out just because there is room for them, then it is a problem. Unfortunatelt, it seems to me that many artists fill the cds with tracks that should have been left out just because they fit. It is worse when they include bonus tracks such as different takes of the same songs just to say that there are bonus tracks on it.

Yes, albums can definitely be too long.  Even in pre-CD days, how many good double albums were there compared to ones that overstayed their welcome?   These days many artists feel obligated to fill up a CD which is close to 80 minutes.  Quality control takes a back seat.  I don't want to catch too much crap for saying this as I am a huge Pink Floyd fan but  The Division Bell is one of them.  Not that there are any bad songs on the second side but starting with  "A Great Day For Freedom"  their is a sameness to many of those songs.   

Albums surely CAN be too long.  It's all been said so I'm going to go slightly wide of topic and say that, in the age of CD, there are re-releases that have been made too long or even ruined by "extras."  (I'll say up front that I know this won't be a popular complaint, because somehow always "more is better," though that's hardly the case as some kind of rule.) 

Albums especially ruined by the extras-plague are the albums that were tight in the first place, or "concepts."  When the concept is done, so should the record be.  Been listening to the Italians a lot lately so they come quickly to mind.  Latte e Miele's Passio Secundum Mattheum ends, and then we have to have an out of place bonus track.  Not precisely a concept record, but Maxophone's great eponymous one-off ends with track 6, Antiche Conclusioni, and then we are given two bonuses, the last of which is really totally out of place whatever you might think of it.  Track 6 was carefully set up to be the apotheosis of a great and varied album; I can't list to the bonuses, they are not in my iTunes (yes we can, and I do sometimes, control what constitutes an "album").  If you still don't get my point, picture the great Dedicato a Frazz ending with some unreleased bonus track - it would be a crime against humanity so to speak, even though fans of the band would love to hear more from that vanished, peerless group.

Now, something like the way many of the Yes re-releases were handled, those are just fine with me.  The extras on Tales and Close are of a historical value, and they're a service to curious and even analytical ears of true fans.  Well, maybe America didn't belong on Close.  Floyd's The Final Cut is a concept album with an extra track on the more recent cd release, but it's inserted as track 4 because it fits there - it's not some extraneous track "not good enough" to be on the album but which the company or band decides to realease now to drive sales.  Imagine how dumb it would be if it were just put at the end after the sad tale is done?

If the album wasn't a concept, or especially if it was a little thin on release, then the bonuses can surely okay. 

However some albums, without being concept records at all, rise through familiarity to a level such that to alter them would be a shame.  For an easy to hand example just take any Led Zeppelin record.

I think we're missing the more important question, can albums be too circular?  And doesn't typically square outer casing disrupt this in some weird kind of way?

Or to put it another way, borrowing from George Carlin: "It's not how long you make it, it's how you make it long."

Einstein On The Beach anyone?

Moving to PC as standart player, giving the possibility but also the risk of jumping more easily.

Edited by tamijo - August 01 2009 at 04:10

Yes! Just listen to Tago Mago by CAN!
It would've been much better if they cut "Aumgn" and "Peking O", and maybe shortened "Hallelulwah" a bit.

^^^  Been listening to too much 'Grunge' me thinks ?   

akamaisondufromage wrote: ^^^  Been listening to too much 'Grunge' me thinks ?

I've listened to the entire Halelulwah AND enjoyed it
But my ears are not infected by RIO/Avant enough to enjoy "Aumgn" & "Peking O".
Apart from those 2 songs, Tago Mago is a great album!