Thoughts on the double album

Yeah, well, I did warn you  I find "filler" as offensive as most people find casual figures of speech like "overrated" and "underrated"

 

I know what you mean, but I prefer to give the artist the benefit of the doubt - and certainly with albums like The Wall, Tommy, Lamb and TFTO I don't believe that the artists slipped in a poor or weak track on purpose - if they exist then that is par for the course, not every track is going to be a gem - if a track is sub-standard then I find it hard to accept that the artist thought: "Oh, that'll do" and just stuck it on the album anyway, however that still would not class the track as filler. I know this is arguing semantics, but hey, this is prog - poor tracks are not necessarily filler and filler tracks are not necessarily poor - similarily seques and interludes between tracks (such that Tool often use) are not filler.

 

If there is a poor track on an album then that's fine - I'll be one of the first to point it out, (More Fool Me) - but I would not regard it as a filler track just because it is poor, it's a poor track or a weak track or a track I just don't like, but filler it is not.

 

 

haha I get that but I just hate when artists make songs just to fill up time

That's probably my absolute favorite album and of course favourite double album. Every time I'm not listening to it I'm all like "this can't be as good as I remembered it to be" and then it's like "omgomgomgomg yes it is!!!!!!" and then I start shrieking like a 12 year old.

 

The art of it all is basically how far a writer or small group of writers can go as they get inspiration to continue beyond 80 minutes. Some Progressive concept releases contain a repeating theme throughout . If the repeated theme is utilizing various instruments to play the melody then it becomes interesting and the double album becomes a worthwhile event. Some double albums drag on endlessly without any color added to the music. If side 2 or disc 2 opens with a song or piece that differs in sound and approach from disc 1.....then it becomes more interesting.....for example on side 3 or disc 2 of the "Lamb Lies Down On Broadway"....I am sorry but I forget the name of the song.....but the point is this.....As a listener,....you might not expect to hear a driving melodic song like that after hearing the first half of the disc.

I still wonder just how "In the Wake of Poseidon" by King Crimson would have sounded  if it had been a double and combined with the writing talents on McDonald and Giles. A fellow from P.A. wrote about this analogy and even had a track listing. This is more of a realization due to the fact that McDonald and Giles had written most of the material for their solo debut while touring with K.C. Think about it. A huge percentage of Prog fans I have met over the years complain that the McDonald and Giles is too sugar coated and causes them to cringe in places WHILE many of them seem to feel that "In the Wake of Poseidon" is a repeat of "In the Court of the Crimson King". Everyone on P.A. knows this. Just about everyone here has read post replies where an abundance of people complain about both aspects of the 2 releases. Maybe based on that reality....if the 2 records had become a double album project....prog fans would have considered K.C.'s second release to be just as grand or even more grand than their first. The songs which hail from McDonald and Giles would have possibly been crafted better with just the right amount of sugar that Ian Mcdonald wanted along with Lake and Fripp adding in gymnastic playing and melodic atmospheric ideas of their own. To me....this is the long lost double album of the early prog days.

 

but, that's just it they kind of are by default marathons. To be honest with a few mysetrious exceptions I think you have to be in the 'mood' for anything of such long duration even some of the single disc LPs one side filling tracks can take their toll...but then if you're in the mood they can be so enjoyable to delve into....

 

The whole double/triple thing can be off putting at times i.e the new Amplifier album, good songs but especially not being very 'instant' sounding it's something I'm clearly sbconsciously delaying listening to in its entirety!

 

Luckily with say things like Porcupine Tree's The Incident you can almost listen to 'CD2' like a separate EP....

 

I guess it's a symptom in some respects of prog that you want to endure a track and all its developments but you're so eager to hear more that if the tune itself is slow to develop you end up moving onto to hear more....

 

Now for jazz-fusion or space rock, even some krautrock it kind of lends itself better...

 

I think stuff liek Ozrics, Magma, Soft Machine, Live Zappa...just by the nature of the sound works whether in short bursts of drawn out epics....look at Umphrey's Mcgee for example, especially live, brilliant improvised stuff.....then there's Chad Wackerman, Allan Holdsworth etc, also 'epic' metal like Tool or Meshuggah can work well in 'long format'....if talking into those kind of genres I care less about the length....in most cases anyway!

 

I think in general single disc albums are more attractive, something admirable and thrilling that an album could be near perfect in under or around an hour or less!

 

Best double album that springs to mind anyway for me though not prog would be Kazumi Watanabe's Mobo - now that is an album where I can't wait for the last track on disc 2 but would be happy to go through any number to reach it! - pure class!

 

Be interesting to see if my (general) approach to this changes