Album length dilemma
- Thread starter Cacoph0ny
- Start date
TheDriller
Member
I don't think its a matter of having short attention spans, its more to do with the fact that an aweful lot of long albums simply cannot justify their length.
if its 2 hours of outstanding material, i'll listen to it.
whereas if its 60 minutes of good/ok material, no-one will ever hear the end of the album.
plus, you've got to remember that the modern listen most likely doesn't have the spare time to sit and listen to overly-long albums. we've all got school/college/work/friends/family to deal with, on top of all this Audio Engineering nonsense
in light of all that, if some band thinks im going to listen all the way through their sketchy 90 minute "mastepiece" , just becasue of some sense of duty (or wanting to prove that i have a long attention span), they are dreaming.
drew_drummer
Dancefap
Subjective. End of.
you've got to remember that the modern listen most likely doesn't have the spare time to sit and listen to overly-long albums. we've all got school/college/work/friends/family to deal with, on top of all this Audio Engineering nonsense
None of that mattered in the 60's and 70's... why does it make any difference now in the 00's ? Not a valid point, in my opinion.
Not liking the music is a valid reason for not listening to an album. The length of the album is not a valid reason.
How many bands that have over 60 minutes of music produce "sketchy" material? Seriously.... I'd like to know. It's all subjective. If you don't like something, why bitch about it? Leave it for the people who enjoy it - easier said than done, I know.
Line666
Fendurr
- Sep 2, 2006
- 3,342
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I like 40 minutes, its the sort of album I can appreciate on the bus ride to college in the morning. When things start to hit the over the hour mark, I find my attention span going. With films I find it a lot easier - I could easily watch 3 and a half hours of entertaining film without really lapsing - it's a lot easier to concentrate on something visual I think.
Wait, how could there be long albums in the 60s and 70s with the length restrictions of vinyl? (an LP is what, 30 minutes per side?)
Torniojaws
They call me Juha
Were there many double-albums released back then, though? Simply because I'd think it'd cost a lot more to produce two vinyls for every release, as opposed to two CD's
Torniojaws
They call me Juha
drew_drummer
Dancefap
You must not be too familiar with prog-rock of the 60's and 70's. Loads of stuff was released with multiple LP's, to cram all the music into a singular release.
And in my not so humble opinion, there is no filler on Lateralus; the album is perfect. If we talk about 10,000 Days, I could say that there was some filler... but Lateralus, Aenima, and Undertow ... they're all perfect.
egan.
daylightdies.com
Just to be clear, what you are saying is true but misleading. The vast majority of Vinyl releases conformed to a single disk with a total runtime of 40-50 minutes. I've actually read older producers lamenting the fact that the CD lifted the 50 minute wall which encouraged labels/artists to include more material....which resulted in more mediocre material "making the record." Basically selling quantity over quality.
Even an album like the wall only actually clocks in a little over a minute what would fit on a standard CD (81:09). It's also true that alot of the prog albums had a bunch of stuff added to them in the CD release to make them double albums. For ex. the original release of Camel's Moonmadness was 41minutes an the current version is 2 hours. Darkside of the Moon is only 43 minutes.
I'll also say that I'm surprised anyone would claim "Die Eier Von Satan," "Cesaro Summability" and "Message To Harry Manback" aren't filler tracks.
I agree that if it's all good it doesn't matter how long it is but I'll reiterate my previous point that (from a creation standpoint) 80 minutes of material is going to take nearly twice as much time, energy and money to record as 40.
drew_drummer
Dancefap
All good points, apart from the filler comment on the Tool tracks. Filler to me means something I just skip... something I have no interest in hearing... something that is just annoying, and isn't worth my energy.
Die Eier Von Satan gave me many laughs when I first discovered the album, and Cesaro Summability, although not very interest in and of itself does lend itself well to blending two tracks together.
They're called segues, and they are more like bullet-points than songs in themselves.
ahjteam
Anssi Tenhunen
drew_drummer
Dancefap
egan.
daylightdies.com
KeithTidd
Robot Penis.
I think it's better to leave the listener wanting a longer album than a short one. Shorter albums make it so every song can shine, why water an album down with like 16 tracks when you can have a solid 10-11?
Skinny Viking
¯\(°_o)/¯ How do Lydian?
Double albums?
I need to stop replying to shit without reading the 2nd page of posts 1st
