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March 28, 2024, 06:23:44 PM

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Optimum Album Length

Started by The Mollusk, October 19, 2021, 02:27:47 PM

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The Mollusk

45 mins

If you can't condense every idea you had for your album into that time frame you're being too adventurous or frankly you're just not good at time management.

Any album longer than 45 mins had better be so fucking sure of itself that dragging itself out is justifiable, that the album is immersive enough that you actually don't realise where that time went. My attention span is garbage, I'll admit, but music is my goddamn LIFE and I'd kill myself if I didn't have it, but even with a really good album that's an hour long I find myself unconsciously checking to see where I am on the track list/runtime to see how long's left.

I'm not strictly saying that anything longer than 45 mins is too much music, per se, it's just that 45 consecutive minutes of music from one artist feels like it's enough. If I wrote 40 mins of music that gelled into a cohesive and engaging whole from start to finish I'd be over the fuckin moon. Nailed it.

It's no coincidence that all the Arctic Monkeys albums are almost exactly 40 mins like and they're BRILLIANT.

On the flip side the absolute worst offenders for ramming a disc to the gills with at least 30% fluff? 90s hip hop.

Pauline Walnuts

#1
35 to 42 minutes.

I'm getting less willing to tolerate albums that just drift these days.


edited for gramma

Butchers Blind

Yeah, I'd agree in the 45min mark. Get in, do what you need to do, get out.
There's a lot of double albums out there that don't need to be.

The Mollusk

Quote from: Butchers Blind on October 19, 2021, 02:44:28 PM
Yeah, I'd agree in the 45min mark. Get in, do what you need to do, get out.
There's a lot of double albums out there that don't need to be.

The Knife's "Shaking the Habitual" has got to be one of the worst offenders I can think of in recent years. One of the tracks is 20 mins of just ambient space noise, total piss.

the science eel

The optimum is 45?

I'd say 50 at most, 45 is still pushing it. 38 or thereabouts is optimum.

daf

LP : 38 minutes, 34 seconds

CD / Tape : 42 minutes, 26 seconds


DrGreggles

45 mins obviously.

2 albums on 1 TDK.

amateur


rue the polywhirl

Depends what genre. If it's an Aphex Slekted Ambient Working and it's 45 minutes then I'm going to feel skimped out. Each disc needs to be maxed out. 78 minutes, thereabouts. Ween The Oneness is pretty optimally lengthed as well even for a rock album.


daf

Quote from: Goldentony on October 19, 2021, 05:30:03 PM
28 MINUTES

Pretty much all of the Beach Boys and Elvis' 60's albums were around that mark.

rue the polywhirl

Quote from: daf on October 19, 2021, 05:38:31 PM
Pretty much all of the Beach Boys and Elvis' 60's albums were around that mark.

More like 24 minutes, with a few proggy excursions like Pet Sounds and Beach Boys Today!

PaulTMA

Thankfully the vinyl revival seems to have killed off the CD bloat era, just as downloads/streaming killed off the hackneyed 10 mins of silence followed by hidden track era.  If you are prog band then fair fucks, but you're gonna have to do a double.  Sadly it's too late for just about every Elvis Costello album from Spike onwards, artistically speaking

markburgle

I was never a Smashing Pumpkins fan but I remember looking at the case for Mellon Collie and not only were there something like 28 songs, the average song length was 5+ minutes. Double your indulgence Billy why don't you! Surely if you were going to make people sit through that many tunes you'd at least try and pare each one back to it's essentials, give the listener half a bloody chance.

Yeah 38 minutes. If you go longer it's probably because there's a 2nd bridge or jammed coda somewhere that nobody needs to hear


Glebe

Quote from: The Mollusk on October 19, 2021, 02:27:47 PM45 mins

Was gonna say.

But to be fair an album should be as long as it needs to be.

rue the polywhirl

An optimal length for a Maroon 5 record is 0.

Johnny Textface

11 songs. 10 3-4 mins tracks and one 9 minute epic. Ta

chveik

Quote from: Glebe on October 19, 2021, 06:21:04 PM
But to be fair an album should be as long as it needs to be.

wise words

rue the polywhirl

Quote from: Johnny Textface on October 19, 2021, 06:28:53 PM
11 songs. 10 3-4 mins tracks and one 9 minute epic. Ta

Seems like the new Coldplay album is right up your alley, length-wise.

JaDanketies

45 minutes is okay but I feel less passionately about this than I do about overlong movies. There are some fine albums that are very short, perhaps grindcore albums. And I'm okay with a prog- or post- album being overlong and noodling. Also pausing and restarting is fine; it took me two days to finish that Caretaker project about dementia.

I never see an album and think, "nah don't wanna listen to that, too long / short" but I always think movies look too long.

The Mollusk

Quote from: Glebe on October 19, 2021, 06:21:04 PM
But to be fair an album should be as long as it needs to be.

Alright Gandalf!

lazyhour


SpiderChrist


jamiefairlie

40 mins, 4 songs per side, average track length 5 mins. Gigs should be the same length.

purlieu

My favourite album is 90 minutes. My second favourite is 38. The first is an immersive ambient soundscape kind of record, the second fairly straightforward indie rock. Both are excellent.

I think for anything on the more ambient end of things, longer can often be better. Similar with dance music, especially artists who do longer tracks. Underworld's '90s albums with loads of 10 minute tracks on would fucking suck if they were 35 minutes long. Orbital's last album was partially disappointing because Paul wanted it to be as close to a 40 minute classic album structure as possible, but it resulted in several tracks being really underdeveloped. In Sides is widely considered their classic, and it's the best part of 80 minutes. Those albums do need to be varied, though. Underworld, Orbital, FSOL, they all went for numerous different genres on an album, meaning there's always something fascinating around the corner. Similarly, Blur get away with Parklife's 16 tracks because there are so many styles on there.

If you're doing a pop-rock album within a particular style or aesthetic, though, it's difficult to push it past 42 minutes without it feeling like it's wasting time. I find this is more and more true the older I get, too, which is possibly related to having less time as an adult, especially one with an existing massive record collection.

Johnny Textface

Quote from: rue the polywhirl on October 19, 2021, 06:40:15 PM
Seems like the new Coldplay album is right up your alley, length-wise.

I god I'm not a fan but is it worth checking out?

rue the polywhirl

Quote from: Johnny Textface on October 19, 2021, 11:07:20 PM
I god I'm not a fan but is it worth checking out?

I guess if you are into self harm.

thenoise

Quote from: PaulTMA on October 19, 2021, 05:46:35 PM
Thankfully the vinyl revival seems to have killed off the CD bloat era, just as downloads/streaming killed off the hackneyed 10 mins of silence followed by hidden track era.  If you are prog band then fair fucks, but you're gonna have to do a double.  Sadly it's too late for just about every Elvis Costello album from Spike onwards, artistically speaking

CDs are meant to be easily skipped about though, so a few filler tracks (like the stupid skits on hip hop CDs) are ok, maybe fun to listen to once or twice and thereafter skipped. I don't even mind a 'hidden' track, but it should be a silly outtake or short bit of nonsense, not something to be listened to every time.

When an old LP is released on CD, there is no reason not to include 20 minute of B-sides, live versions, etc at the end. Why not? We can always skip them.

LPs take more effort to skip about, so any potentially skippable tracks should be at the end of each side only. Radio classics at the start of the side, experimental nonsense at the end.

SteveDave

It's 40-45 minutes.

I was given "Parklife" by Blur on vinyl for Christmas and it just doesn't work as a record.