"Filler" tracks on prog albums

 edited by ST

Edited by Sean Trane - May 05 2006 at 06:41

Hey!

Yes, it's a fact that artists may be preassured by the record companies (who only understand business, but not art) and they may have to put filler songs in the albums.

Firepuck wrote: MikeEnRegalia wrote: Masque wrote: A great 45 minute CD is better than a  potentially great 77 minute CD but has some filler,  I think. Where's the difference between a great 45 minute CD, and a CD with 45 great minutes and 15 minutes filler? I mean, the extra 15 minutes don't cause any additional cost ...        About 15 minutes

So I should rate Terria less because Devin gave us an additional outtake track but forgot to label it "bonus"?
     

MikeEnRegalia wrote: I just read a review of Tool - 10,000 Days ... the reviewer complained about two tracks that he called "filler": Lipan Conjuring and Viginti Tres.

I saw that review and had similar thoughts. The problems I have are:

"Lipan Conjuring" is a little over a minute, so why should it really matter? It's a little interlude, and much less annoying / lengthy than Tool's previous "filler" tracks -- see (-) ions from Ænima.

"Lost Keys" is (to me) an awesome mood piece and highly effective setup to the next track on the album. I love it and would never consider it filler.

"Viginti Tres" is filler, but so what? So the guys wanted to doodle around at the end of the album and had room? Again, it's nowhere near as offensive as the unlistenable "Faaip De Oiad" from Lateralus, and even if you hate it, just stop the CD. Should be no factor at all.

So in this case I couldn't possibly see "filler" material as being a problem. Plenty of other albums just have bad songwriting, and I'd consider that filler

ThisWas wrote: filler is just a word for a song on an album people dont like ie: For Absent Friends on Nursery Cryme people say it doesnt flow with the album, but then again, does every prog album have to have continuity to constitute being a prog album? if you look at say led zeppelin, or the beatles, its all filler if you look at it from that perspective

^

I think a 77 minute cd is a bit overlong for my personal listening experience.  I agree with the earlier statements saying 40 minutes is more ideal.  Just because a cd can hold 80 minutes of material doesn't mean the artist should feel obligated to fill the disc to capacity.  Rick Wakeman has said that Yes had to noodle around while recording Topographic Oceans so that each song would fill the entire side on an lp.  While I happen to love Topographic a great deal, I can see where a bit of editing would have helped the album.  Same goes for the White Album, Tommy, Electric Ladyland, The Lamb and several other double albums.  When the 33rpm became available in the 50's, it was the great jazz artists of that era that were the first to truly allow themselves to stretch out and play a bit longer, something that they could not do with the old 78's.  So, with new technology and new formats come artists willing to utilize the extra available space to varying degrees of success. 

Edited by man@arms - May 04 2006 at 15:31

Any Colour you Like. Scum track.

akin: I wasn't complaining about the review - people have their own concept of rating, nothing wrong with that.

Ok, Outtakes and bonus from release versions I usually don't reveiw because in first place most of my collection is from vinyl, so no bonus. And in second place, when there is a bonus/outtake, usually there is a version that doesn't include these bonus, so it isn't fair. This outtakes/bonus are commonly released to aggregate value to the new cd versions, but they are not part of the album (for example, Deep Purple's Fireball has 7 songs on the original release and 16 on the deluxe edition on cd. I reviewed only 7 because this is the way my record is).