How long do you like albums to be ?

[LeSedna]

Let's say it's a band of a common style (like melodeath, death metal, powermetal) with songs around 4 to 5 mns.

How many tracks do you like an album to be ?

Because I tend to get bored after like 7 or 8 songs, and I don't like an album to be more than let's say 40mn. Metal is so fast usually that it's just too much information for my brain.

On albums of 11 or 12 tracks, I rarely listen to it from the beginning to the end, I mean, actively.

I'm asking this to myself and to you because I'm currently writing an EP, and as my songs are quite long (6/7mns easily) I may think a 4 song EP being a bit too long and becoming to be too close to a full length album (supposedly with all 7mn songs).

 

[Harry Hughes]

Well the thing is, a lot of what I listen to isn't of a "common style" as you put it.
Yeah I listen to a lot of melodeath, groove metal, thrash etc, but I also listen to stuff you can put on and just close your eyes too and zone out too on a regular basis. Personally I think it's an extremely shallow and lazy approach to just like stuff that's within a certain time frame and then say "nope, I can't handle anymore" and turn it off, even if the songs still going after that kick some serious fucking ass.
So really, at the end of the day, good material is good material for me.
I'm not just gonna throw shit out because it "goes too long" , that's just fucking ridiculous. I'd like to think I have the attention span greater than that of a kid with ADHD.
If a band can make an album full of nothing but killer material for 77 minutes, I'll sit there and listen to it for 77 minutes.
If a band can't make something worth a shit for 20 minutes, then it doesn't deserve my time even if I can get it over and done with quickly.
Don't worry about song lengths/album lengths and just write music that sounds good to you.

 

[drew_drummer]

Length is irrelevant. It just needs to flow well together. There are many 50minute and over albums that I listen to, and they're broken up well - segues can be helpful to give the ears a rest, and let the listener prepare for the next song.

 

[Harry Hughes]

Length is irrelevant. It just needs to flow well together. There are many 50minute and over albums that I listen to, and they're broken up well - segues can be helpful to give the ears a rest, and let the listener prepare for the next song.

+1, and +1111111111111111111111 to the first 3 words.

 

[GeertSamuel]

I personally really dislike the grindcore style "25 minutes = 30 songs". I like songs to be songs, not just some riffs.
Mostly I will get annoyed if an (full) album is shorter than 30 minutes, if I like it...for the rest I actually don't care.

 

[Torniojaws]

+1 to length being irrelevant. As long as the album and songs are good, it does not matter. But, for example, my #1 favourite albums from each year between 2000 - 2009 are quite similar in their track count and length, with minor deviances:

9 tracks, 32:05 // Terror 2000 - Slaughterhouse Supremacy
9 tracks, 47:48 // Evergrey - In Search of Truth
7 tracks, 43:18 // Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors
8 tracks, 43:19 // Opeth - Damnation
9 tracks, 40:56 // Arcana - Le Serpent Rouge
8 tracks, 42:56 // Dark Funeral - Attera Totus Sanctus
9 tracks, 56:46 // Die verbannten Kinder Evas - Dusk And Void Became Alive
9 tracks, 39:58 // Ulver - Shadows of the Sun
7 tracks, 79:17 // Darkspace - Dark Space III
11 tracks, 48:35 // Katatonia - The Night Is The New Day

Average: 9 tracks, 47:24

So, I would say, 9 tracks and about 45 minutes is the optimal length At least for me...

 

[JMarz]

8-12 tracks, 3-5 minutes each is completely ideal

For power metal, 7-11 tracks with some 20 minuters on there

 

[Harry Hughes]

The Night Is The New Day is such a terrifyingly perfect album. Probably my second favorite album of the whole of last decade.

 

[LeSedna]

Well I do agree duration is irrelevant, but only for special cases. It's of course dependant on the material, but yet, if you have to have an album coherent, you have to think a bit about it stilll. We all agree on the fact a good album will never seem too long. I have some albums that are 25mn and are okay this way, and some are almost 1 hours and seem too short. But these are extremes. That's why I asked for "average metal albums" of 4/6mns songs that 80% of bands write, because all albums don't belong to the category of "extreme killer album" that you can listen 5 times a day, from the beginning to the end.

When you write songs, it's quite hard to anticipate how people will listen to it. That's why I'm searching here some of your personnal feelings, more or less objectives (opposed as subjectives) to give me clues about how most people approach the listening of an album, because I have no fucking idea, I don't have so many metalhead friends right where I live currently.

 

[GarethSE]

I have a fondness for MASSIVE listens.
Earth 2 on vinyl the other night took me at least 100 minutes including smoke breaks between discs.

I dunno, length is irrelevant really. Artists just need to listen to their gut and go with what feels right when it comes to the overarching length of the record. Some jams I've had have been upwards of 80 minutes, some have been 20 minutes, it just depends on the piece of music in question.


And as for how I approach the listening of an album? I carry my speakers downstairs, set them up on my altar of MUSIC (a little table with my turntable and my speakers either side of it with a selection of records laid out against the legs of the table \m/) light candles, put a cushion on the floor, go for a smoke, then sit down, turn the lights off and shut the fuck up for the next hour, the way it SHOULD be.

 

[LeSedna]

And +1 for Night and the New Day, I just fucking love this album, it's one of my revelations this year !

And even for this album I tend not to listen so much for some songs. That's why I'm asking you how you people listen to albums.

 

[GarethSE]

Also I only ever listen to full albums, even if the experience is flawed for it because of certain songs not being as strong or whatever. An album is released with a certain flow worked out to make the album flow in the best possible way. This is why I don't get the "shuffle" obsession. You don't get any of the atmosphere and feeling that a full, beginning to end listen gives you. Music should take you places, exhaust you, make you weep like a little girl and want to pussy out from the never-ending stream of brutality all while making you want to grit your teeth and carry on regardless.
Fuck shuffle. Full albums or DEATH.

 

[Harry Hughes]

I fucking love zoning and giving a deep listen to a full album from start to finish.
While admittedly a lot of my listening is still at the computer, I listen to albums from start to finish away from the computer. Just throw the CD, block myself out from the world, lie down/sit entirely sit for the whole album and do nothing but listen to it.
There's crappy pop music you can put on in the background, and then there's music you gotta sit down, and just listen too.
If you intend your music to be of the type that it needs deep listens, then your listener has to be able to just sit there, do nothing but listen to it and enjoy it from start to end.
Hell really, it's even more important for YOU to be able to do that before you take into consideration your audience. Chances are, if you can dig the fuck out of something from start to finish, with zero distractions, you just lying there listening intently to every nuance, little detail and whatever, then other people will like it because you just know it's quality shit

 

[TheWinterSnow]

I don't care how long the songs are, the albums needs to be the full 70-80 minutes that is possible on the CD (or extremely close to it). For me its about the experience of listening to every song, if its a good album, you don't want it cut short. It maybe a pet peeve for me thought with short albums, I am not paying $12 for a CD that is barely a half hour.

And if I can't listen to the whole album all the way through without getting bored, its not a good album nor good band that is worth listening to.

 

[muckypup1]

I like listening to whole albums, I just can't get into it if I don't hear all of it

and I don't care how long the album is, like Fukpig's first album is only 30 minutes long, I love it, and Dream Theater's Train Of Thought is pretty long, I also love that, I like listening to any length, as long as its fucking good

 

[Line666]

40 minutes, I usually find anything longer and artists are starting to run into filler territory. I often find myself not listening to the last two or three tracks because they've just been put there to fill up some record label quota and the ones at the start of the album are much stronger.

Theres a real difference in the way I listen between an album with some strong songs and an album with consistantly strong songs, if its the latter I am more likely to listen all the way through, if its the former I like to cherry pick.

 

[AllanD]

For the most part, I'd say not many bands can make enough good songs for me not to skip a few tracks, or turn the album off completely. I'm a bigger fan of E.P.'s, because there's not enough time for error on the most part.

 

[fade_2_black]

I know you said common styles of music, but for more interesting and enveloping music I prefer albums to be longer. Im a big fan of longer tracks, 6-10 minute sorta stuff, perhaps 6-8 tracks. Albums that are long and that flow well, keeping the listener intrigued for the entire album are amazing albums. Quite an achievement to get an album like this.

 

[Force666]

30-40 min

 

[AudioPhile777]

Length is irrelevant.

I know quite a few women who will disagree.