Mar 25, 2015

Since Earl Sweatshirt decided to drop one of the shortest albums in recent memory, I'm curious how many of you think an album can be considered not long enough.

How short can an album be without it being a serious flaw?

 

Mar 25, 2015

Under 25 minutes you have a real problem. There are a fair few 10 track projects that sit between 26-32 minutes long. Really under 30 should be a problem for a studio album, but if the music is great who's to say. My preferred absolute minimum would be 35 minutes.

 

Mar 25, 2015

I think the shortest album I can find in my iTunes is PARTYNEXTDOOR at 29 minutes, second would be Earl's at 30 minutes.

 

Mar 25, 2015

You're Dead! - Flying Lotus was pretty short tbh. 38 minutes for 20 tracks.

Doesn't help I bought it on vinyl and it's 2-LP so it's like <10 minutes on each side.


EDIT: The first Run The Jewels project was only 33 minutes long. EARL was 26 minutes long.

 

Mar 25, 2015

10-12 tracks.. with a run time of 38 mins is the perfect length for an album. You don't want it clustered with multiple unwarranted skits, and filler tracks.. keep it simple, and great.

 

Mar 25, 2015

That's why Yeezus is such a good album. 10 tracks, 41 minutes. Every song on it is good.

 

Mar 25, 2015

I hated Yeezus though.. that album wasn't what I had in mind..lol I was thinking more of L'Orange - The Mad Writer, to each his own though

 

Mar 25, 2015

Nostalgia, Ultra 43 minutes

 

Mar 25, 2015

I think in most genres < 30 minutes is too short. I can only think of one album under 30 minutes that I think is great(maybe 2) and neither of them are rap either.

 

Mar 25, 2015

Anything less than 10 tracks should be an EP not an album. GRODT had about 20 including bonus tracks and there isnt a bad song on it so it depends on the artist too.

 

Mar 25, 2015

@WPG

 

Mar 25, 2015

16-20 is reasonable amount of songs for an album anything less than that should be counted as a mixtape or a ep

 

Mar 25, 2015

Eyedea & Abilities "By The Throat" is the shortest one I can recall.. 11 tracks at 29 minutes and change

Blu's "Her Favorite Colo(u)r" is also pretty short.. 14 tracks at 30 minutes

 

Mar 25, 2015

Life is... Too $hort.

 

Mar 25, 2015

Why should the short length be a problem? There are many great albums that run for less than 25 minutes, a recent example is Joyce Manor's "Never Hungover Again" that came out last year has 10 tracks, it's 19' long, and it was amazing. If anything, the longer an album is, the bigger the chance to have filler or become tiring, but again it's not about length but about quality

Which ones mate?

 

Mar 25, 2015

Whoa high standards haha
What if it's got 16 songs that are all 1 minute?
Or what about swans - to be kind which only has 10 tracks but goes for 2 hours, should that be an ep? Lol

 

Mar 25, 2015

To me either way you put it would just be weird if you have 10 tracks on a cd and call it an album.

 

Mar 25, 2015

Nick Drake's Pink Moon album. 28 minutes long but 10/10

 

Mar 25, 2015

this is so dumb

to answer @Perry The Platypus question--or, well, not to answer so much as to reframe it--you guys should be talking in terms of running time rather than tracks. dark fantasy is 13 tracks, but it's 70 minutes--madvillain is 22 tracks, but it's 45.

rap albums have always tended to creep longer than other genres. much rather have a good 35 minute album than a bloated 80 minute album with formless jazz and aimless writing and 12-minute fake 2pac hologram interviews. but i digress.

EDIT: i should also add that it's pointless to have this discussion in the abstract. like, yes, an album could, in theory, be so short as to hurt it. but i can think of very few examples off the top of my head for which that's true. we can't make blanket statements and say "if it's under 35 minutes it's bad" because, like, that's demonstrably untrue.

also, the attitude that longer albums are better because you can just delete the tracks you don't like is bs. you can obviously do that for your listening enjoyment but what perry's asking is about the actual, empirical quality of a piece of work.

 

Mar 25, 2015

Jabs at TPAB aside, when does an album start to hurt from being too short?