ban double albums

soulsinging
soulsinging Posts: 13,202
edited February 2008 in Other Music
let's face it, they almost always suck and are half full of filler. plus, they put them in those double-wide cases that are annoyingly bulky and take up valuable space on my shelf. it's always an indulgence in ego and would always have sounded better as a single album with a little discpline. hip hop is especially bad for this. it seems every hip hop artist feels the needs to release a double album once they hit big and it is almost always a flop.

the only exceptions:

1. compilations:
whether it's a greatest hits or assembly of b-sides, if you're rounding up material from an artist's entire career, odds are good you can find enough decent material for 2 discs.

2. multiple songwriters:
this one is a maybe. but exceptinos can be made in the event you have multiple creative forces contributing material, as they might be able to compile enough good material to warrant the extra disc. examples... wu tang forever and the white album. granted, both had filler. but both also had a lot of contributing artists and enough good material to fill more than one disc.
Post edited by Unknown User on
«13

Comments

  • Rhinocerous Surprise
    Rhinocerous Surprise Posts: 4,423
    Don't forget live albums.:)
    Smokey Robinson constantly looks like he's trying to act natural after being accused of farting.
  • FinsburyParkCarrots
    FinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    I agree. I'd ban hour-long CDs, too. Aim for 35-40 minutes of quality.
  • norm
    norm Posts: 31,146
    the problem is that a double "album" holds like what maybe 2 hours whereas a double "cd" holds 3+ hours so bands are just filling up cd's with useless poorly executed songs....once again, vinyl wins....;) :)
  • kenshunt
    kenshunt London, Ontario, Canada Posts: 2,863
    FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:
    I agree. I'd ban hour-long CDs, too. Aim for 35-40 minutes of quality.
    i enjoyed system of a down, hypnotize mezmorize, but i guess they were released on diff days, but u can put the cases like a double cd,.
    London 2005
    Toronto 2011 night 2
    Hamilton 2011
    London 2013
  • soulsinging
    soulsinging Posts: 13,202
    Rhinocerous Surprise wrote:
    Don't forget live albums.:)

    shit, right. meant to include that one. if you're releasing a live concert that spans 2-discs, that's ok too.
  • FinsburyParkCarrots
    FinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    Bruce Springsteen released two albums on the same day, once, and each was a steaming dog turd.
  • soulsinging
    soulsinging Posts: 13,202
    cutback wrote:
    the problem is that a double "album" holds like what maybe 2 hours whereas a double "cd" holds 3+ hours so bands are just filling up cd's with useless poorly executed songs....once again, vinyl wins....;) :)

    i thought it was more like 90 minutes for vinyl and 2 hours and 45 minutes for cd? a cd is 80 minutes, 2 would be 160, or 2 hours 40 minutes. either way, a double record is a lot less demanding and doable. double cd's are almost always excessive.
  • DaytimeDilemma
    DaytimeDilemma Posts: 2,008
    If you happen to be the Red Hot Chili Peppers or the Foo Fighters, I whole heartedly agree.
  • norm
    norm Posts: 31,146
    soulsinging wrote:
    i thought it was more like 90 minutes for vinyl and 2 hours and 45 minutes for cd? a cd is 80 minutes, 2 would be 160, or 2 hours 40 minutes. either way, a double record is a lot less demanding and doable. double cd's are almost always excessive.

    shit i'm talking out my ass about how long they are....i was just agreeing with you and pledging my allegiance to vinyl...:)
  • Anon
    Anon Posts: 11,175
    when's Pearl Jam releasing their double album?
  • dunkman
    dunkman Posts: 19,646
    "I'm not a big one for 'Well, maybe it was too many of those...' Whaddya mean? It's great, it sold, it's the bloody Beatles' White Album! Shut up!"
    Paul McCartney
    oh scary... 40000 morbidly obese christians wearing fanny packs invading europe is probably the least scariest thing since I watched an edited version of The Care Bears movie in an extremely brightly lit cinema.
  • FinsburyParkCarrots
    FinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    dunkman wrote:
    "I'm not a big one for 'Well, maybe it was too many of those...' Whaddya mean? It's great, it sold, it's the bloody Beatles' White Album! Shut up!"
    Paul McCartney


    He would defend that position, though. He knows, if we were cleaning up that album, his songs would be the first to go. :D
  • soulsinging
    soulsinging Posts: 13,202
    FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:
    He would defend that position, though. He knows, if we were cleaning up that album, his songs would be the first to go. :D

    havent we been over this recently ;)
  • dunkman
    dunkman Posts: 19,646
    FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:
    He would defend that position, though. He knows, if we were cleaning up that album, his songs would be the first to go. :D

    but you and i know both know that its the White Album... it is what it it is.. life would be different if it were scraped down to an 'album'... like time travellers standing on a ant... its life altering ;)
    oh scary... 40000 morbidly obese christians wearing fanny packs invading europe is probably the least scariest thing since I watched an edited version of The Care Bears movie in an extremely brightly lit cinema.
  • soulsinging
    soulsinging Posts: 13,202
    cutback wrote:
    shit i'm talking out my ass about how long they are....i was just agreeing with you and pledging my allegiance to vinyl...:)

    i figured. not sure why the exact times were so important to me ;) anyway, 2 cd's=too much time to fill. i dont own vinyl, but whatever works for you!
  • pjoasisrule
    pjoasisrule Posts: 3,412
    Mellon Collie is the only great one that I can think of. I think the White Album is one of the worst Beatles albums, an unbelievable amount of filler and it is an early sign that the members are all way better off working together rather than on their own.
    Alpine Valley 2000
    Summerfest 2006

    "Why would they come to our concert just to boo us?" -Lisa Simpson
  • soulsinging
    soulsinging Posts: 13,202
    dunkman wrote:
    but you and i know both know that its the White Album... it is what it it is.. life would be different if it were scraped down to an 'album'... like time travellers standing on a ant... its life altering ;)

    the white album was exempted by the fact of its having multiple songwriters to support its length. plus it was released on vinyl, so instead of being packed to the max with shit, it's just a few songs over fitting on one cd. as opposed to bands that try to put 60 minutes on each cd, each disc of the white album is about 45 minutes.

    pearl jam would be exempted under the same exception. they have 5 songwriters, so im sure they could produce enough deent material for a double.
  • facepollution
    facepollution Posts: 6,834
    Ben Harper's Both Sides Of The Gun was an excellent double album. I think it works because he didn't over-do it, just 9 songs on each disc. As opposed to Stadium Arcadium's 28 songs, most of which were shitbags!
  • FinsburyParkCarrots
    FinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    dunkman wrote:
    but you and i know both know that its the White Album... it is what it it is.. life would be different if it were scraped down to an 'album'... like time travellers standing on a ant... its life altering ;)

    You're fucking Lee Majors? :D
  • Pauk
    Pauk Posts: 1,084
    pjoasisrule wrote:
    Mellon Collie is the only great one that I can think of. I think the White Album is one of the worst Beatles albums, an unbelievable amount of filler and it is an early sign that the members are all way better off working together rather than on their own.
    The White Album was more of a rarities album really. Sure it had lots of filler, but they were fun! I'd count B sides and rarities as one of the exceptions.

    Double albums are all rubbish (exc. exceptions). It's a sign of poor editing skills. About the only 'double album' I like is I'm Wide Awake It's Morning/Digital Ash in a Digital Urn by Bright Eyes, but that doesn't really count since they are separate albums released at the same time.
    Paul
    '06 - London, Dublin, Reading
    '07 - Katowice, Wembley, Dusseldorf, Copenhagen, Nijmegen
    '09 - London, Manchester, London
    '12 - Manchester, Manchester, Berlin, Stockholm, Copenhagen

Categories