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

The Dark Elf wrote: 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.  And there's folks like George Harrison, who released the triple album All Things Must Pass, which was the greatest double album with six sides ever made. Or Johnny Winter, who released a three-sided album. I don't recall any one-sided albums, but I am sure there are a few.

 

Kati wrote: 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 moshkito - March 17 2014 at 09:58

Dean wrote: moshkito wrote:  I would like to see that done on CD, but it won't happen, so the effect will be lost!  Simples. You just turn the CD over and play the b-side.

 

I have read about many bands who wanted to release double albums in the days of vinyl only but had to trim down because the record companies didn't want them to release them and some of these tracks show up as bonus tracks on cd reissues. Some of those bands got away with it somehow, i guess because they were somewhat successful and had some decision making powers. Today's CDs have albums that should count as double albums. Personally i tend to NOT like double albums unless they are absolute masterpieces. I hate having to skip tracks and if half of the album is filler then they should liberally use their editing abilities

Ah... the old padding and/or filler myth. 

A while ago, a friend asked me to compile my top 10 double albums. This was the list I made:

Floyd - The Wall

dr wu23 wrote: I don't know about 'the padding and filler myth', but I own most of the double's mentioned as wel as some others and when I do play them (not as much as the single albums by the same bands btw), I usually play only one of the discs/vinyl sides because the other has weaker material. But maybe that's just me.........

ExittheLemming wrote: 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

Logos wrote: The Lamb is mostly filler to my ears.

Hold me back... somebody hold me back.....

Dean wrote: dr wu23 wrote: I don't know about 'the padding and filler myth', but I own most of the double's mentioned as wel as some others and when I do play them (not as much as the single albums by the same bands btw), I usually play only one of the discs/vinyl sides because the other has weaker material. But maybe that's just me......... Which half of The Lamb Lies Down, Tales From Topographic Oceans, Quadrophenia, Tommy, The Wall, Electric Ladyland, Exile on Mainstreamstreet, 666, Tanz der Lemminge, Focus 3, Aerial is the weaker half. (Deliberately ignoring double live album of course because it's a well known fact that bands put all their weaker material in the second half of their live sets and save the really weak filler for the very end, and the weak padding songs for the encore).

For someone as knowledgeable and astute as yourself, I cannot fathom why you cling to the naive belief that musicians and artists don't have their bad days at the office/recording studio like the rest of us. Maybe it's just the terminology of padding and filler that irks you so?
Is it unreasonable to ask why you wouldn't acknowledge that maybe Peter Gabriel, Roger Waters Jon Anderson, Pete Townshend, Jimi Hendrix et al are occasionally guilty of letting something through that they know maybe isn't on a par with the rest of an album's material or even their previous work?. They all have managers, record companies,wives,mistresses,tax men on their back, suffer downturns in creativity, crises of confidence, deadlines to meet, impaired judgement/faculties (deliberately or otherwise) so-called writer's block and (gulp) even fall ill or just get plain vanilla jaded, lazy and sloppy, tired and emotional etc
Your final comments about double live albums are testimony to the great and the good clearly not being immunized from mediocrity. You're starting to resemble the 13/14 edition of Man Utd.


Edited by ExittheLemming - March 17 2014 at 17:01