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Double albums that do and don't work.


spectoremg

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No compilations, live albums or obscure twaddle. 

Don'ts:

The Lamb - 1st half much better than the 2nd. 

Physical Graffiti - brilliant, but around a quarter of it is old outtakes - bit of a swizz. 

Songs in the Key of Life - always found it a bit flabby - lingering play outs for instance. 

The White Album - George Martin was right, they should have made it a single album. Revolution No.9 - WTF?

Do's: 

Quadrophenia - Just about and the final side, Bell Boy to Love etc is the best bit. 

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Just now, paul_5 said:

Don’t: Stadium Arcadium by RHCP would have been as big as Californication if they’d trimmed the fat off it (by a good 40 minutes)!

I was just about to post that. 

I'll add Melancholy And The Infinite Sadness by Smashing Pumpkins to the don't list. It's just too samey, it could've been a blinding single album instead of 'mediocre and the intolerable snoozefest' double that it is. 

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Do -

Stones ‘Exile on Main St’ - one of my favourite albums

Bruce Springsteen - ‘The River’ - ditto. Many seemed to think it would have made a better single album but I like it all.

Derek & the Dominos - ‘Layla and other assorted love songs’ - not loved much on here I believe, but a great piece of work IMHO. 

Don’t -

Lou Reed ‘Metal machine music’. Dreadful album following some other great ones, I believe it was to fulfill a contractual obligation.

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10 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

Oh come on, 20 minutes in and nobody has mentioned Tales Of Topographic Oceans?

Biggest fail in the history of prog, and that's a much coveted title.

I wanted someone else to do that one!

Use your Illusion : 1 album of great songs spread across 2 discs

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Do work: 

Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile. Once of the few double albums I really enjoy listening to all the way through. 

Pink Floyd - The Wall. It is Pink Floyd. 

Don't work (in my opinion) 

Baroness Yellow and Green: The Green side is just full of filler songs which are very samey. 

My personal opinion is the influx or CDs ruined the old school double album which generally limited artists to 45 mins per album. However, since CDs bands have frankly been putting too much stuff onto a disk, leading to incredibly long 'single' albums which are frankly longer than most classic vinyl double albums. RHCP Stadium Arcadium effort being a case in point. The other guilty parties to this in my opinion are: 

Guns n Roses: Use Your Illusion I and I. Considering the length of each individual album is essentially an old school double album (70 plus minutes per album) this is essentially a quadruple album. I think that at least 4-5 (or more) could have been trimmed from each respective album, leading to an album of approximately 45-50 mins per album. 

Metallica Load/Reload: Each individual album cuts in at 75 mins plus so we are in quadruple album territory here again. I think that at least 4 songs should have been cut from Load, perhaps as many as 6 on Reload which starts great but the second half just has too many 'kinda generic riffs in E flat' songs.

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1 hour ago, spectoremg said:

No compilations, live albums or obscure twaddle. 

 

21 minutes ago, NickD said:

Probably sacrilegious.... but Lizzy's Live and Dangerous,

 

 

10 minutes ago, miles'tone said:

Do: Rush - Exit Stage Left

Ahem 😬

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Haha! Double albums AND I saw the show: Topographic Oceans - I was tripping my donkey off and they OPENED with the complete Close To The Edge. So that was a million hours of Yes and me having a Spiritual Experience. T.O's was STILL TOO LONG when I came down. (but the good parts were still good, I think I wrecked the vinyl after that) And they kept editing that down in live performance. The Wall. Over Blown. I had Mezzanine 1st row@ Nassau Colliseaum (right where the plane hit The Wall, turns out). Interesting to see live, considering there was a Fake Pink Floyd band and a Nazi Rally at the other end of The Colliseum, and they brought out The Inflatable Pig for No Reason. But, Boring, Boring, Boring, Double Album with Too Much Waters and Not Enough Pink Floyd. And Joe's Garage Sucks except for when Frank Shuts Up and Plays His Guitar. Sorry F.Z. fans he ran outa fun a long time before that.

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13 minutes ago, StickyDBRmf said:

Haha! Double albums AND I saw the show: Topographic Oceans - I was tripping my donkey off and they OPENED with the complete Close To The Edge. So that was a million hours of Yes and me having a Spiritual Experience. T.O's was STILL TOO LONG when I came down. (but the good parts were still good, I think I wrecked the vinyl after that) And they kept editing that down in live performance. The Wall. Over Blown. I had Mezzanine 1st row@ Nassau Colliseaum (right where the plane hit The Wall, turns out). Interesting to see live, considering there was a Fake Pink Floyd band and a Nazi Rally at the other end of The Colliseum, and they brought out The Inflatable Pig for No Reason. But, Boring, Boring, Boring, Double Album with Too Much Waters and Not Enough Pink Floyd. And Joe's Garage Sucks except for when Frank Shuts Up and Plays His Guitar. Sorry F.Z. fans he ran outa fun a long time before that.

You sound like you're still on that trip. 

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IME most double albums that aren't greatest hits or live simply have too much filler on them (an that includes CDs that run over 45 minutes). Even my favourite bands generally struggle to come up with more than 45 minutes of great new music per year. 

Right now I can't think of one double album that wouldn't be improved by trimming it down to under 45 minutes.

Contenders for terrible ones IMO are both by The Clash - "London Calling" with only 2 decent tracks and "Sandinista" which doesn't have any.

 

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