Short Albums vs Long Albums

Thought this would be an interesting poll. There are a lot of instances where an artist or band will release an album that will either have 5 to 6 tracks, and sometimes have up to 11 tracks.

Which do you prefer? And your opinion could be based on pretty much anything. Like, would it affect your opinion of the album in general? Does an album have to be lengthy in order for it to be excellent? Is it better to have a shorter album with longer songs, or a longer album with a lot of shorter songs?

Those are just some questions to think about, but you can say anything you want in terms of short albums vs longer albums.

Personally, I could go both ways. If an artist releases a short album but all the songs are incredible regardless of length in songs, I don't mind it too much. If the album is full of a lot of tracks and has a lot of songs that barely reach over 4 minutes, I would expect the songs to sound incredible. Regardless of fillers or not.

Gotta stick with the ol' cliche: Quality over quantity

There are great albums in both camps. Gonna have to sit on the fence with this one.

Some albums can run a little too long though, so definitely agree with Titokinz.

Regarding albums though, vinyl or not, it's not really a matter of the length for me but how well the songs flow. Albums are supposed to be an art form, not just a matter of hit songs and then some throw-ins or fillers. The organization of it all is quite important to me.

Titokinz said:

Gotta stick with the ol' cliche: Quality over quantity

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That's how everyone should see it, it isn't about how big an album is. It matters more about how good it is.

Prime said:

Personally, I could go both ways.

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Tee hee.







On topic though, to me a good album is a good album regardless of how long it is. Whether it's a triple album that clocks at nearly 2 hours like Frank Zappa's masterful "Joe's Garage" or an album that's made up of 10 songs and barely breaks a half hour like The Darkness' "Permission to Land". Ideally, I like my albums to be around 45 to 55 minutes long. That's a cozy duration for me.

I guess what would matter for me is the quality of music. But then again, part of the process of creating Quality music is knowing when to stop.

The Animals Love Is clocks at around 66 minutes with only 8 tracks. And the last one is 17 minutes long! The musicianship was good, but I thought it needed some trimming, some songs went off far too long.

Genesis' Selling England By The Pound is a little shorter at 53 minutes, but features enough interesting melodies between the tracks to keep things interesting and fresh. Its an album I can listen to over, and over, despite not being a prog junkie.

Most of my favorite albums tend to be around 40 minutes long, rather than double albums if that counts for anything.

Yeah there are cases where bands often add filler songs.

I can go either way as long as the music is good!

What I find interesting personally as far as long album vs. short album goes is in regard to listening to CD's on my drive to work. It's about 30 minutes in the morning depending on traffic then 30-40 minutes depending on traffic. Before I moved to the place I'm at now, add 10 minutes each direction. I noticed older albums, especially ones that originally were on vinyl tend to be shorter - unless it was a double record set or something like that. Older albums I can sometimes listen to the entire thing one way while newer albums ... well I don't. I try not to do the distracted driver thing and switch CD's during my commute ... but sometimes I do! With longer CD's ... well I can listen to about half going to work then the other half going home. What I wind up doing a lot of the time is starting someplace at random and listen to a favorite 30-40 minute section ... or sometimes I jump around or listen to a track more than once! The past couple weeks I've been kind of stuck on a 15 track CD I'm working on a report for and mostly do the random section, jumping around bit.

doesnt bother me either way as long as it is good.