Perfect length of a studio album

[rtbuck]

How long or how many songs do you feel a studio album needs to be?

No doubt there are some great double studio albums out there but on the average how long or how many songs should a studio album be?

Take for instance (& this is only my opinion) 'Black Ice' by AC/DC. I felt it was a good album but it had too many songs on it. I never really could sit & listen to the whole thing straight through

 

[OptimisticFutureBlues]

^ I completely agree with the new AC/DC album. They did run the extra lap on that one. Has some great tracks on it though.

To me a good album has about 10 songs. Depending on the length, you could even shorten it to 8 if they are long songs. It cant be too long, well I don't know. See that's just my opinion. I guess it could go on for as long as you want it to, you have to keep the interest of the listener though. For example Jimi Hendrix's 'Electric Ladyland' is a long one, but its engaging the whole way through. The extra distance from start to finish made it more of a journey.

 

[LG]

I admit it has taken me some time to get used to the extra tracks on CD's having grown up with 40 minute LP's Bucky.

It depends on the band I guess, some have depth and enough quality to easily fill a double CD, Ayreon's Electric Castle comes to mind as an example. Others like you said seem to have some "filler" and have songs that would never have made the grade in the old days. The industry has changed though, it used to be One album/year by contractual obligation during the vinyl era, and now bands take two years or longer to record an album, and I have never seen so many Live albums issued to keep fans interested as the last 10+ years. If the band can use the 80 minutes on a CD with great material that's fine with me, but when I am in my cups playing my old albums there is something that just resonates with a 40 minute sitting and then off to the next one.

 

[snowblue]

I tend to agree, LG.

40 minutes an album (preferably a gatefold cover so I have something to look at while I'm listening, and a booklet with the lyrics too) and 4 or 5 songs on each side.......are we getting old or what?

 

[LG]

^^Yep our age and bias is definitely showing I have to say Snowblue...

One thing that does irritate me about CD's is the typeset some of them use, for Gawd's Sake use Large Bold Fonts when you print the damn things, I actually have to use a magnifying glass to read some of the information on them.(I'll bet some of you thought I was going to say "monocle"...)

 

[joe]

I've been thinking about doing a poll on album release frequency vs. musical duration content. For example, back in the 60's, 70's, and most of the eighties artists usually issued an album on a yearly average with about 40 minutes of content to fit on a Lp.

With the introduction of the CD with the capacity of around 80 minutes it seems a lot of artists release an album every 2-3 years or more.

To answer the question I'm going down the middle and say 60 minutes.

 

[Magic]

Perfect length and time = 45 minute with approximately 10-12 songs.

 

[Groovy Man]

I sometimes feel like nowadays (and in the last 10-20 years), as far as ''new releases'' go - a lot of the time, bands put too many songs on the album, and sometimes it waters down the quality of the album. Too many songs can turn a ''great'' album, into just a ''good'' album.

I think the best 10 - 11 songs should be chosen, and keep the album anywhere from 45 - 50 minutes, in my opinion.

Then again, there are few exceptions, like Tom Petty's ''Wildflowers'' album. 15 great songs, clocking in at 62 minutes and 48 seconds.

Good albums, like The Rolling Stones ''Voodoo Lounge'' and ''A Bigger Bang'' could of been great albums, if they had 10 or 11 songs, instead of 15-16 songs.

For example Jimi Hendrix's 'Electric Ladyland' is a long one, but its engaging the whole way through. The extra distance from start to finish made it more of a journey.

Well...''Electric Ladyland'' was a 2 record set, but as you said the journey from side one to the last track on side 4 is well worth the trip.

 

[AboutAGirl]

37 minutes.

 

[Pixel]

Hmm, between 45 and 60 minutes.