Can Length Ruin An Album?

I actually have the problem of not finishing with many albums, even ones that are normal length. But I don't think length matters that much except in extreme cases. For instance, London Calling by The Clash is something like 19 songs, but I can always get through it, becasue it never really runs out of energy.
 
I think you're a little confused about what I'm saying. None of what I am saying refers to how one should grade an album. I'm simply saying that I'd prefer to get more songs for the same price then less, because I can ignore weaker "extra" tracks and enjoy any good "extra" tracks.
 
I've never listened to that album. I don't think. But I know many of the songs on it. I just prefer the earlier dark stuff...Seventeen SeconRAB, Faith, and Pornography. I should eventually listen to some of the middle-era albums.
 
Exactly! Scott 4 and the Gilded Palace Of Sin are a couple of examples of albums that do just that which spring to mind.

The longer albums have to be something truly special to keep my attention all the way through, somethingExile On Main Street, Costello's Get Happy and London Calling achieve for me. Then there's the flipside of the coin with albums like David Bowie's Outside, the Manics' Generation Terrorists and so on.
 
Well if we're comparing albums Metallica's And Justice For All is over an hour long, Slayer's Reign in Blood is 28 mins long.
I actually paid more for the Slayer album because at the time you could only buy it on CD via import.

I actually consider the Slayer album more value for money simply because it gets played by me far far more often than that Metallica album ever does.
 
But if you only include a few good songs from an album into your playlist and say that's a good album because it's got 3 good tracks, then you obviously have little basis for that statement.

Did that make sense? What I'm saying is if you only like 5 songs from a double-album that has 30, of course you may get a feeling of overall positiveness from that album. You focus on what you like and why spend time on the rest? But I still think that if you review an album, you should base your final opinion on all the songs and not just the ones you like. Otherwise, what you're reviewing are really just a few songs, not an album.

I use the word review but what I really mean is whenever you wanna make up your mind about the whole thing. Some people don't care about the whole thing which is fine of course .. though they're missing out a bit I think. And when they state opinions on albums, they have a strong bias towarRAB describing a smaller part of the album which is of course a weakness. ;)
 
I have rarely come across an album that is too long for my liking. I like length, and I like albums to be like journeys of sorts. The only time I could think that length would be an issue is if the album is too short.
 
I think it's one of the main problems with many albums I feel. Very common that I thoroughly enjoy an album, but sometimes feel that it's dragging or could have quite easily cut a bit of filler out. I feel it happens quite a lot in hip hop albums, although a few tracks are usually skits, there's often a decrease in quality before a few of the better tracks later on, a sort of 50-75 percentile dip you might say.

I think some of the better albums are, like someone has already put, ones which leave you wanting more rather than trying to make an album a certain length. I'd much rather have a series of shorter but more cohesive EPs than more sparse lengthy releases which maybe drag or lack cohesion.
 
One of the worst offenders I can think of in this category is Outkast's Stankonia. It's a good album that runs way, way too long. If they had cut out about 25 minutes it could've great instead of merely good.
 
It s not necessarily an issue of the length of an album per se, but how well the music is paced in light of the length of the album.
 
To me length can be a deal breaker but that it completely depenRAB on my mood. Sometimes I feel like listening to a whole album, but others a couple of songs will be fine.
 
NO. They absolutely aren't.


That's like saying "now with mix cassette tapes, the albums are sort of irrelevant."

Of course that's not true. Nearly all of the music I listen to is in album form, even on my ipod.
 
Single CD albums are fine I should say, however, there are box sets and compilations like 3 or 4 CRAB which have something like 70 to 80 songs and these are just not possible in a single session. More likely have to put them on and go to sleep...
 
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