TrackListI’m noticing a new trend that I find positive. It is tied in to the release of vinyl, making this new trend a good thing where music is concerned.  And no, you don’t have to buy vinyl to get the value.

For years, I have bemoaned the point that CDs allow for too much space, giving bands and artists room to issue more than ten songs per album. It has always been my opinion (especially true even in the golden age of Rock and Roll) that when a band or artist intended to release a double or triple album that was not live, then that band was generally headed for trouble with their wealth of compositions. With some exceptions, a look back will find this to be true. Too many songs on a release means the cuts were less severe, and the odds were that several “filler” tracks made their way on to the album.

Now that LPs are hip in this day and age, bands and artists are paying much closer attention to which songs are being released in order to be sure they will fit on an LP. If there are extras, then they become bonus tracks that are downloadable. This pleases me to no end. It means that the albums we get are being better thought out than they were in the not too distant past.

Those of you who read TAP on a regular basis already know my list of bitches. Too many tracks on a single album, which diluted the overall quality of the set, was one of the top bitches. Hopefully, not anymore!

What do you think?

By MARowe

6 thoughts on “Fewer Tracks Mean Better Albums?”
  1. I prefer a running time of 40-45 minutes.

    Lykke Li’s 2014 album is less than 33 minutes long.

  2. I think there will still be plenty of cds released with more than 10 songs but I tend to agree with your premise that sometimes less is better.
    I don’t know that the resurgence in vinyl is driving this change or that your perception that more albums are being released with fewer songs is necessarily correct. It might be, but I can’t prove it.

  3. No. More songs, please. If I don’t like the song, I skip it. If I like it, it goes on a compilation. But I want to be the one who decides which songs I listen to and like. If a band records 20 songs, I want to hear the 20 songs, and not just the ten songs someone else (who doesn’t know what I like) decides to keep on the hard format release. Many times I have liked the “b-sides” better than tracks on the album’s release.

  4. I’m all for more songs! In fact some of my favorite songs are the ones that initially got left off. For example, Led Zeppelin’s “Traveling Riverside Blues”, “Jennings Farm Blues”, and “Hey, Hey What Can I Do” didn’t make the cut for the album but they are among my all-time favorites.

  5. I couldn’t agree more with you Matt!
    I look back on the DLR Van Halen albums. 31-36 minutes and I never felt like I was shortchanged. The flipside of that is Lenny Kravitz. His albums in the 90s early 00s were very good start to finish. 40-50 minutes. With his last few albums, 60-70 minutes and LOTS of filler. A great album you shouldn’t ‘need’ to ‘skip’ a song!

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