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The T
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: October 16 2006
Location: FL, USA
Status: Offline
Points: 17493
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Topic: I'm tired of (most) 79 minute albums! Posted: November 21 2007 at 14:11 |
Yes. I am.
Really, there was a time when you could expect to listen to your newly purchased prog masterpiece (or that you expected it to be a masterpiece) without having to set your agenda, to alter your whole day, to forget about the rest of mankind for almost 80 minutes! The problem is, while there are a lot of magnificent 79 minute albums, most of them are harmed by the length. It's not the rule that artists manage to put out 80 minutes of pure quality, but an exception.
I know the needs for artistic expression demand more.. time... or resources.. or whatever. But sometimes it's just pretentiousness of artists who really think all they write is good. Yes, even Roine Stolt sometimes suffers from this (even though I love his music so much that I happen to enjoy his elephantistic albums ).... But what about the times when albums lasted 40-50 minutes? What about some balance? Some equilibrium? Not EVERYHTING has to be 80 minutes long!
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King of Loss
Prog Reviewer
Joined: April 21 2005
Location: Boston, MA
Status: Offline
Points: 16752
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Posted: November 21 2007 at 14:12 |
The times albums lasted 40-50 minutes is because vinyls couldn't store more than 60 minutes
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The T
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: October 16 2006
Location: FL, USA
Status: Offline
Points: 17493
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Posted: November 21 2007 at 14:16 |
King of Loss wrote:
The times albums lasted 40-50 minutes is because vinyls couldn't store more than 60 minutes |
I know, but that doesn't mean that, just because you CAN put 80 minutes of music ina cd, you HAVE to do it...
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cuncuna
Forum Senior Member
Joined: March 29 2005
Location: Chile
Status: Offline
Points: 4318
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Posted: November 21 2007 at 14:18 |
Here, here!. I hate 75 + albums. Bring back the 45s or some of those cute 30 EPs I'm beginning to like so much...
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¡Beware of the Bee!
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Ricochet
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: February 27 2005
Location: Nauru
Status: Offline
Points: 46301
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Posted: November 21 2007 at 14:24 |
Well, I'm definitely not. Klaus Schulze is best when filling every second of the CD with sound, samples and such.
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King of Loss
Prog Reviewer
Joined: April 21 2005
Location: Boston, MA
Status: Offline
Points: 16752
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Posted: November 21 2007 at 14:30 |
Yeah, but most artists choose, cause they can make more songs you know!
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Chicapah
Prog Reviewer
Joined: February 14 2006
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 8238
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Posted: November 21 2007 at 14:43 |
Too much prog music for your money? This is a problem?
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"Literature is well enough, as a time-passer, and for the improvement and general elevation and purification of mankind, but it has no practical value" - Mark Twain
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Trickster F.
Prog Reviewer
Joined: February 10 2006
Location: Belize
Status: Offline
Points: 5308
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Posted: November 21 2007 at 14:45 |
I've found this true in most cases. The longer the album is the more chances the artist has to fail to impress me.
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Philéas
Forum Senior Member
Joined: June 14 2006
Status: Offline
Points: 6419
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Posted: November 21 2007 at 14:59 |
I prefer short albums (35-45 minutes) in general, but there are some cases I feel an album should've been much longer. Albums longer than one hour do tend to drag a bit towards the end.
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cuncuna
Forum Senior Member
Joined: March 29 2005
Location: Chile
Status: Offline
Points: 4318
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Posted: November 21 2007 at 14:59 |
No to mention, forget about designing the whole listening experience and just put a lot of songs togheter instead. I fail to listen such long albums everytime, leaving 5 track out of my atention for months.
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¡Beware of the Bee!
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fuxi
Prog Reviewer
Joined: March 08 2006
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 2461
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Posted: November 21 2007 at 15:08 |
You're dead right where the Flower Kings are concerned, hell, I usually get tired of their music after ten minutes, they're so O-VER-IN-SIS-TENT, but in the past year I got to know two fairly recent prog albums which are over 70 minutes long (I think) and incredibly inventive from start to finish: Discus' TOT LICHT and Deluge Grander's AUGUST IN THE URALS. Talkin' 'bout Prog Heaven? Well, it exists!
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StyLaZyn
Forum Senior Member
Joined: November 22 2005
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 4079
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Posted: November 21 2007 at 15:10 |
The T wrote:
Yes. I am.
Really, there was a time when you could expect to listen to your newly purchased prog masterpiece (or that you expected it to be a masterpiece) without having to set your agenda, to alter your whole day, to forget about the rest of mankind for almost 80 minutes! The problem is, while there are a lot of magnificent 79 minute albums, most of them are harmed by the length. It's not the rule that artists manage to put out 80 minutes of pure quality, but an exception.
I know the needs for artistic expression demand more.. time... or resources.. or whatever. But sometimes it's just pretentiousness of artists who really think all they write is good. Yes, even Roine Stolt sometimes suffers from this (even though I love his music so much that I happen to enjoy his elephantistic albums ).... But what about the times when albums lasted 40-50 minutes? What about some balance? Some equilibrium? Not EVERYHTING has to be 80 minutes long!
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I hear what you are saying. Some Prog just lacks diversity. Or the sound gets tedious. The most recent victim of this is DT's latest studio release. I had hoped to hear so much more from such outstanding musicians. And as much as I like Devin Townsend, he also seems to lack sonic diversity with Ziltoid.
One album I can't rave enough about, not sure if it's 80 minutes or not, is Kino's Picture. After about a year, it still retains it's magic to me. And I really enjoy Rush's SnA release.
Overall, an album that is put together well and lasts 50-60 minutes exceeds any production of 80 minute rehashed material. The idea of filling up a CD for the sake of doing it is nonsense.
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Proletariat
Forum Senior Member
Joined: March 30 2007
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 1882
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Posted: November 21 2007 at 15:17 |
I really hate this, I start listening from the beggining but then after a while get bored and turn it off, next time I play it I start from the beggining again and the same thing happens, it can take up to ten listens for me to make it to the last track, and then I wished I had heard it earlyer, especially if its the best.
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who hiccuped endlessly trying to giggle but wound up with a sob
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Moogtron III
Prog Reviewer
Joined: April 26 2005
Location: Belgium
Status: Offline
Points: 10616
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Posted: November 21 2007 at 15:21 |
Oh well, in the age of MP3 it's only a temporary problem
Just kidding , though there may be an element of truth in it. Paul Simon once said in an interview that he found out that 45 minutes is the perfect time span to listen to an album. And I agree with The T: most artists are not able to make an 80 minutes album which is good overall.
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cuncuna
Forum Senior Member
Joined: March 29 2005
Location: Chile
Status: Offline
Points: 4318
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Posted: November 21 2007 at 15:22 |
Nothing like that good old Brain Salad Surgery album. It ends when you need it; it lets you breathe, you get enough pauses and a whide musical range to let your mind play.
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¡Beware of the Bee!
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ProgBagel
Prog Reviewer
Joined: May 13 2007
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 2819
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Posted: November 21 2007 at 15:39 |
Just depends on who does it. If Fear of A Blank Planet and Nil Recurring were crammed together...I'd find a way to give it a 6.0 on this site.
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ProgBagel
Prog Reviewer
Joined: May 13 2007
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 2819
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Posted: November 21 2007 at 15:39 |
For the topic's sake, yes, they are getting a tad bit boring and fail to impress me.
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Proletariat
Forum Senior Member
Joined: March 30 2007
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 1882
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Posted: November 21 2007 at 15:47 |
ProgBagel wrote:
Just depends on who does it. If Fear of A Blank Planet and Nil Recurring were crammed together...I'd find a way to give it a 6.0 on this site. |
I would have given it two stars, I thought that PT wasn't able to sustain the consept that long as it was.
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who hiccuped endlessly trying to giggle but wound up with a sob
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MikeEnRegalia
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: April 22 2005
Location: Sweden
Status: Offline
Points: 21381
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Posted: November 21 2007 at 15:54 |
ProgBagel wrote:
Just depends on who does it. If Fear of A Blank Planet and Nil Recurring were crammed together...I'd find a way to give it a 6.0 on this site. |
You're describing the vinyl edition of FoaBP ...
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King Crimson776
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 12 2007
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 2779
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Posted: November 21 2007 at 16:01 |
It's not like you have to sit through the whole album in one sitting, it's just more music
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