Complex: Albums Are Getting Too Long

[RAMROD 109,223]

My reply to ha

 

 

[gag 22,449]

Complex, a rap/hip-hop oriented publication: Rap albums are getting too long! [provides examples of rap albums that have 16+ songs]

Pop fans, completely detached from the modern rap scene: what are they talking about!?! 

[thehanyo 4,251]

This article is exclusively about rap albums. And how quick and easy it is for rap artists to make tracks. This doesn't apply to elaborately-produced albums that most people on this forum enjoy.

[INNA 3,685]

Gatekeeping album length from the perspective of a media publication and not an artist or a true fan who probably really wants to share more, or hear more music. This stinks

[IllusionLover 6,654]

Wait til they hear Red (Taylor's Version) with 30 songs and one of them is 10 minutes long 

[Pharamon 6,839]

13 hours ago, LaLuna said:

Well my favorite album has only 9 songs so 

Speaking of short albums, wanna hear the shortest song ever?

No it's not a joke, that's actually the whole song 

nah, the whole song is actually 7 seconds long 

[spector 1,918]

3 hours ago, IllusionLover said:

Wait til they hear Red (Taylor's Version) with 30 songs and one of them is 10 minutes long 

and there won’t be a single skip 💁🏻

[Guest]

I disagree, I don't think theres any such thing as too much music. 

For example, BTW has 15 tracks and the special edition has 18. Thats a perfect amount and it doesn't feel like theres any fillers.

[DavidLuis198 1,139]

I think people are misunderstanding what the article says, it says albums are getting too long because artists are cramming a lot of tracks, some of then would be considered filler in the past and cut from the album for not being good enough to be there, it's not about track length.

So, albums are getting too long with lots of tracks that are getting shorter and shorter.

Examples of that in pop that I can remember are Lover by Taylor and Dancing With The Devil... by Demi.

Both have 19 tracks (standard version), but a lot of them could be cut from the album and it would made both better, less tiring albums, they could also add some runtime to some of the tracks so they could be a little more flashed out (Chromatica)...

I agree with the article because when you see a album with lots of tracks, you get tired only thinking how many different songs are in it, but when an album has less tracks who are longer, it's easier to get into it and longer tracks (when made well) present a better experience overall

[StrawberryBlond 14,819]

Yeah, it's definitely almost specifically referring to hip hop albums, as per the publication it's from and its exclusive examples of hip hop albums. For those who aren't aware, hip hop albums have been overly long for many years. Difference is, they used to be tracks at 3:30 minutes long or longer, now they're packed full of 2:40 type length tracks, totalling well over 20 per album and most of them have an additional deluxe into the bargain. Very exhausting experience for album reviewers like myself. You feel relieved when you see how short they are but then realise they've compensated by putting on more so it's all swings and roundabouts. They called out the worst offenders, definitely Migos, Chris Brown and Drake but it's a widespread issue. I thank the likes of Cardi B who kept her debut mercifully short (she was actually praised for this by reviewers). It meant the entire album was never tiring, was never re-treading old ground and you're left wanting more in a good way. I'd much rather have that feeling as opposed to fidgeting for an album to be over so I can live my life. And yes, even from my favourites, it's still an issue. I'm glad Gaga's longest album has never gone near the 20 track amount and remains under an hour. It means I can fully appreciate her songs and remember them. Too long albums mean the songs start to merge into one, particularly if it's a very cohesive sound and it feels like they were a bunch of filler that could've easily been dropped and not waste our time. I highly doubt the artist can remember them all. Do rappers really perform their entire album at their tours? Do they even know and care about all these throw-away tracks that were just packed on for streaming purposes? Because I find it very hard to believe.

On 8/2/2021 at 10:15 AM, KanyeWest said:

Makes sense that no one wanna spend a lot of time listening to Migos, kills your brain cells after a while

As someone who's listened to all their albums, I can agree. It's just like listening to one track on repeat, it's like Groundhog Day. And most of their songs are really long too as they have 3 people who have to say their piece equally in addition to any guest verses. Their actual style of rapping has got better but their subject matter and beats just don't change and its no wonder they've routinely dropped in popularity over time with no one really caring about their newest release.

On 8/2/2021 at 2:01 PM, KORG said:

The longer the better, more meat to swallow.

You know what you were doing with that sentence and don't try to deny it.