Why do so many bands do just one double album?!

Because people only needed one folding cover to roll their joints on?  

moshkito wrote: But it also gave rise to the idea that you could put songs in a certain order, and then tell people that a story was there, and no one would know any better! The Beatles White Album is exactly that. There might be something here, or not!

bhikkhu wrote: Because people only needed one folding cover to roll their joints on?

This, of course never ever ever happened.

Slartibartfast wrote: bhikkhu wrote: Because people only needed one folding cover to roll their joints on?   This, of course never ever ever happened.

At any given time in their careers, very few bands have enough decent material to fill one album, let alone a double album. We're not talking B sides or alternate takes, but songs that are actually worthwhile for a double album. Also, back when double albums were the rage, a band usually had to have some serious clout and cajones to release a double album. 

Recently, considering that most prog bands do not get a return for their money/investment for their cd sales, this is a fact why most do not produce double albums, also a big reason is the cost I think, CDBaby who are one of the biggest distributors in the world charge twice the amount for a double album compared to a normal one, thus equal as two different albums, postage in terms of weight also does play a major role I think.

Edited by Kati - March 16 2014 at 22:49

The T wrote: Because many double albums are boring as hell.

Agreed. I believe that nearly 90% of double albums are way too inconsistent. If it comes to concept albums, then often on those double LPs the concept just devours music, making the record sound boring and unenthusiastic, if it' just a bunch of songs on two LPs, like 'Psychical Graffity', then those LPs suffer very often of the lack of consistency, with a bunch of very weak and unmemorable fillers beside the real good songs.

I believe that if you'll cut down any double LP to a 40 or 50 minutes long sigle LP, then you'll get a real gem. Otherwise there's no wonder than even here almost all double LPs are losing contest to just the standard albums. No wonder there is only one double LP in the PA Top 100.

Surprisingly, there was a bunch of excellent double LPs since 90's, such as Nine Inch Nail's 'The Fragile', but the very creation of those double albums takes a lot of time, much more than prog bands had back in 70's to make a record.

moshkito wrote: Today this is not an issue since you can put 100 minutes on a CD, and guess what ... that's like 2 and a half LP's.

Dean wrote: chopper wrote: moshkito wrote: But it also gave rise to the idea that you could put songs in a certain order, and then tell people that a story was there, and no one would know any better! The Beatles White Album is exactly that. There might be something here, or not!   Really? What "story" did the Beatles say was in The Beatles then? it goes something like this: "Nora Helmer once secretly borrowed a large sum of money so that her husband could recuperate from a serious illness. She never told him of this loan and has been secretly paying it back in small instalments by saving from her household allowance. Her husband, Torvald, thinks her careless and childlike, and often calls her his doll. When he is appointed bank director, his first act is to relieve a man who was once disgraced for having forged his signature on a document. This man, Nils Krogstad, is the person from whom Nora has borrowed her money. It is then revealed that she forged her father's signature in order to get the money. Krogstad threatens to reveal Nora's crime and thus disgrace her and her husband unless Nora can convince her husband not to fire him. Nora tries to influence her husband, but he thinks of Nora as a simple child who cannot understand the value of money or business. Thus, when Torvald discovers that Nora has forged her father's name, he is ready to disclaim his wife even though she had done it for him. Later when all is solved, Nora sees that her husband is not worth her love and she leaves him."

Very clever, you're way too smart for this place Dean.

There's that old cliche that as a new band, you get 5 years to write your debut album and 3 months to write the second etc. Maybe a lot of bands are frightened of drying up at around the 3rd album stage so (wisely) keep material back to combat writer's block? ELP released four studio albums in 3 years which is kinda unheard of today. Have to agree with many of the posters that there are very few traditional 'doubles' that don't flag at least part of the way through. Still trying to think of an example in Prog that bucks this trend but ended up with only these plain vanilla rock/pop efforts:

London Calling - the Clash
Exile on Main Street - Stones
Oranges and Lemons - XTC







Edited by ExittheLemming - March 17 2014 at 09:31