Thoughts on the double album

Originally posted by catfood03 I was just listening to The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway last weekend. I listened to the first disc in the early afternoon and the second that same night. Still was a very enjoyable experience. I don't have as much time (or patience) as I did when I was a teen I guess. I agree that a tight 40 minute album is preferable to an uneven 80 minute one, but progressive rock isn't exactly known for its brevity.

But how many times do we need to hear Side 4 of Lamb again anyway?

My preferred length is between 40 and 45 minutes, but if you've got enough good material for a double album, then why not? The Lamb, Topographic Oceans, The Wall, Focus 3, etc are all great records ... I couldn't imagine them any other way.

Originally posted by Sean Trane   Originally posted by Dean I wouldn't want every album to be a double, but I'm more than happy with those few that are - I honestly can't imagine Tales from Topographic Oceans, The Wall, Tommy, Electric Ladyland, The Beatles (White) Album, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Marbles, Incantations, Yeti, Zeit, To Venus And Back, 666, Aerial, Tago Mago, London Calling, Made In Japan, Focus III, Space Ritual, Physical Graffiti, Soundtracks For The Blind, English Settlement or Sheik Yebouti being anything less than double albums. Sure, some of them are an endurance challenge, but rewardingly so.   you mention some almost perfect examples of double albums, but 95% are vinyl-released     But still I'd say that quite a few of those albums would've gained by being more selective and concise, by dropping a few fillers..... because the danger of building a second disc to an album is that you may resort to second-rate material.... I mean there are very few three-sides albums , the only one I can think of right now being Johnny Winter's Second Winter album witha blank D-side

I'm not of that school. If an artist released an album of a set length then that is what he wanted to release, nothing on that album would I consider to be filler. For example Tales From Topographic Oceans is 81:15 - two minutes were trimmed from The Revealing Science of God to make it fit the double vinyl format - that was a limitation imposed by the format, not by Yes themselves - even converting that from vinyl to CD would result in a double CD - trimming that further to make it fit on a single CD would be further still from what Anderson and Howe envisioned for that album so nothing was added to those recording sessions that would constitute "filler". The Wall is 81:09 minutes long - again too long for a single CD - tracks were cut from those recording sessions to make it fit onto a double vinyl, so like Yes, Pink Floyd (Waters) made compromises on their original vision of that album, so again, from their perspective nothing on the album is "filler" so nothing on it is "filler" for me either.

I have never understood all this talk about "filler", especially when it comes from people that I deem serious and worthy of respect. Transposing and applying this filler talk on the arts, it would be like when I visit a painter's retrospective, I should skip the walls with watercolours and drawings because they're "filler" and the exhibition would have been better with only the major paintings. Also, the smaller paintings and most of the paintings making up series would also be filler. 

Originally posted by harmonium.ro I have never understood all this talk about "filler", especially when it comes from people that I deem serious and worthy of respect. Transposing and applying this filler talk on the arts, it would be like when I visit a painter's retrospective, I should skip the walls with watercolours and drawings because they're "filler" and the exhibition would have been better with only the major paintings. Also, the smaller paintings and most of the paintings making up series would also be filler.

I don't get what you mean here at all and just to prove I clearly misunderstand you, my take on your post is that you place the artist on some sort of pedestal beyond reproach i.e. he/she deemed something a worthy addition to their oeuvre but I don't, so I must be mistaken in not likng it? Just remember that the 'major paintings' in your analogy are deemed so retrospectively by (gulp) us.

^ I guess the 'warts/beauty spots' perspective is valid for the reasons you state but if you don't like eggs, not even a state of the art omelette is gonna convince you otherwise.


Edited by ExittheLemming - July 10 2011 at 07:17

Originally posted by harmonium.ro Originally posted by ExittheLemming if you don't like eggs, not even a state of the art omelette is gonna convince you otherwise. I don't know how this relates to the discussion, which is more like "I like salads, but I would skip the olives, the cheese and the olive oil, they're unnecessary and detract from enjoying the good stuff."

 

To my mind "filler" is something put there deliberately by the artist to make up the numbers, whereas a track that is below par or just something you don't like is just a track you don't like. Are You Ready Eddie? was written as a humourus tribute to Eddie Offord and reflects Emerson's love of boogie-woogie - I don't see that ELP would consider that (or any other Emerson non-prog / honky-tonk excursions) as filler.

Originally posted by Sean Trane Originally posted by catfood03 I was just listening to The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway last weekend. I listened to the first disc in the early afternoon and the second that same night. Still was a very enjoyable experience. I don't have as much time (or patience) as I did when I was a teen I guess.I agree that a tight 40 minute album is preferable to an uneven 80 minute one, but progressive rock isn't exactly known for its brevity. It's kind of different really.... Double vinyls were lasting something close to 80's mins, and if they are often as double CDs, it's mainly for a few minutes' worth of materials in excess for one CD pressing...   A double CD album such as TFK could theoretically last as long as 160 minutes (just under three hours)        Originally posted by Dean I wouldn't want every album to be a double, but I'm more than happy with those few that are - I honestly can't imagine Tales from Topographic Oceans, The Wall, Tommy, Electric Ladyland, The Beatles (White) Album, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Marbles, Incantations, Yeti, Zeit, To Venus And Back, 666, Aerial, Tago Mago, London Calling, Made In Japan, Focus III, Space Ritual, Physical Graffiti, Soundtracks For The Blind, English Settlement or Sheik Yebouti being anything less than double albums. Sure, some of them are an endurance challenge, but rewardingly so.   you mention some almost perfect examples of double albums, but 95% are vinyl-released     But still I'd say that quite a few of those albums would've gained by being more selective and concise, by dropping a few fillers..... because the danger of building a second disc to an album is that you may resort to second-rate material.... I mean there are very few three-sides albums , the only one I can think of right now being Johnny Winter's Second Winter album witha blank D-side

Another famous one is "The Case of the Three Sides Dream in Audio Color" by Roland Kirk