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Post Info TOPIC: Albums with NINE songs or LESS
Jock Mooney


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Albums with NINE songs or LESS
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Hello!

I've been thinking recently about albums with nine songs or less - under ten anyway. Obviously "Separations" had nine tracks (though I think "This House..." is AWFUL - not even good in a funny way).

When CDs became more common place, early 1990s, their rather high price put pressure on "value for money" which usually meant "filling the fucker up" - whilst it was quite common for albums in the 1970s and early '80s to have sometimes as little as SIX songs, of course the time limits of "two sides" on vinyl counted a lot towards this.

In the mid '90s, when a new album would still cost you around £13.99 (no internet competition a la CD-WOW and Play) an album with TEN tracks was a bold move, as twelve or more were considered "value for money / £1 a song".

Now that downloading is bigger than CD sales, and that most "chart" Cds can be obtained online sometimes as low as £6.99 new, where does that leave the expected "magic number" on ye olde tracklist?

A retro styling that has come back into fashion since The Strokes broke big has seen 7" singles and vinyl albums becoming fashionable (regardless of listening quality...oh, like downloads...) as have the number of tracks that go with said album - even on CD the once three track CD, which is still common place, has been joined by the common two track CD equivalent of a 7" single and it's b-side. We associate the "classic vinyl" era of the past with less songs - quality not quantity. And I'm all for it...but, would you be happy buying a CD with nine songs or less?

Most Kraftwerk albums contain six songs. Some of Bowie's best are very short on actual induvidual songs per se; Diamond Dogs (out of "eleven tracks" there are only really seven songs if you don't count the intro, outro and reprises) Station to Station has six, Young Americans has eight (and one is an AWFUL Beatles cover)....I could go on.

If its a quantity not quality thing, what makes an EP and EP and not an LP?  "Separations" is a great album and would have been a great EIGHT track album - but would that not have been acceptable? "This house..." is filler of the highest degree.

-- Edited by Jock Mooney at 21:42, 2007-04-23

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ArrGee


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In the days of vinyl, it was based on duration, so if a act had one long track, then inevitably you would only get nine.  Elvis Costello did stick 20 songs onto Get Happy!! but they gave the impression of being abriged and the inevitable groove cramming distorted the sound.  I was glad that came out on CD.

These days I don't buy too many albums (there's enough free and legal downloadable music to keep me occupied), and even when I do they get ripped to MP3 and get scrambled up with everything else.  It's interesting that record companies want iTunes to follow a subscription model.  I suspect the "album" is about to die.  People will buy them, but probably will just pick and mix the tracks they want.



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Jock Mooney


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Part of me hates the thought of the album's death, the other likes it. I mean on the one hand, a GREAT collection of songs that work well with each other is a joyous experience, that said, some bands just don't have a great album in'em...just a coupla singles. But wait a minute. Maybe that means they're shit...I take it back, viva the album. A solid album is proof of a solid band, the album stays in the picture.

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Fuss Free


Different Class

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Business-wise, I think the best move the industry could do is increase the number of songs on an CD. Just fill the whole thing up. Consumers would get more for their money. It would make legal downloading more expensive than buying. And it would make illegal downloading a bigger hassle.

These days, nobody seems to agree on what is good or bad, so more songs means more choices.

Singles should just go away. There's no point in them anymore.

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Jock Mooney


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 David Bowie has LOADS of albums, but I also realised that he tended to spread himself quite thin; very few "b-sides" or outakes. This is an area where Pulp and early Suede differed considerably, having some amazing b-sides and "lost" songs. But then again Bowie was allowed to just release stuff as and when, which is a luxury that latter day bands do not have...but it seems to be coming back a bitt.

Razolight, who I HATE, had a number one single with a demo (America). While I dislike the band I find the fact that a demo was released as a bona fide "finished" track to be encouraging. Bowie rarely did demos. One could argue that some of his best material was born out of the studio; Station to Station, Low, Heroes - to me these threee consecutive albums are his "golden era".

In a band myself (self plug) we build up songs in the studio. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't - but I would never let the fact that something started off as a demo stop me from pushing a track. Maybe bands "demo" too much, it slows down the process massively.

I'm not completely against demo-ing per se. One track we've done just doesn't gel, and as we're approaching the mixing stage we either go back and do it again or put it on the back burner. Which Pulp did a lot.

So I agree that "singles" should be done away with. In my view the need for "extra" stuff is tedious....I don't see the point of going into the studio to record a "b-side". I think everytime you are in the fucking studio you should be intending to better your last A-side.



-- Edited by Jock Mooney at 09:40, 2007-04-25

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Frisko2000


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Station to Station is great, but Low and Heroes aren't.  they're half albums with lots of filler.  Scary Monsters though, he saw that one through. 


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Fuss Free


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Frisko2000 wrote:

Station to Station is great, but Low and Heroes aren't. they're half albums with lots of filler. Scary Monsters though, he saw that one through.


On the contrary, Heroes is one song with a lot of filler. Everything else on that album is forgettable.

But the "filler" on Low is actually pretty good. Speed of Life, Warzawa and A New Career in a New Town are all really wonderful. And the 5 songs on the album with actual vocals are all amongst Bowie's best.

 



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The Idiot


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Heroes is a super album.  I suppose I can appreciate how some people really don't think much of the instrumentals, but Joe The Lion, Beauty And The Beast, The Secret Life Of Arabia, Sons Of The Silent Age, the title track and Blackout (my personal favourite Bowie song) are all great.

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weed


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'Low' is one of my favourite albums ever. The instrumental tracks are so intresting I think lyrics are not nesersary and would spoil them.

As for some of Bowie's 6 or 7 track albums (such as Station To Station) remember the songs all clock in at around 6 mins (the title track it's self being a whopping 10 mins) and it makes a good solid album.

Also remember Bowie would do 2 albums a year in the 70s. all unique in their own way so it's not like he struggled to fill them, just cut out the padding. Probably part of the reason he's regarded as such a great artist now.

Incidently for anyone doing pub quizes this weekend. The lengh of time which has now past since Bowie released his last album (Reality), is the longest gap between his albums ever!

I hate it when bands realise huge double albums which contain a few great songs and about 15 which are complete shite. It completely ruins the album.

Back on topic, Seperations to me is a good solid album packed with great songs (if you turn it off before THIC!! Different Class is also regarded as one of the greats as it never lets up.

If you were to take 3 or 4 of the weaker tracks from This Is Hardcore, I think it would have been a lot stronger and stood the test of time much better.



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Jock Mooney


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Frisko2000 wrote:

Station to Station is great, but Low and Heroes aren't.  they're half albums with lots of filler.  Scary Monsters though, he saw that one through. 


       I can see how "Heores" may not be to everyone's cuppa taste - but Low is 1000 times better. That's a scientific fact.

Funny, I always find "Scary Monsters" a bit dissapointing - true, some GREAT singles (Ashes to Ashes, Fashion) and Teenage Wildlife - but is sags towards the end. Its a ten track album; two tracks are "the same song" (It's No Game 1 & 2), there is a SHIT cover "Kingdom Come" and "Because You're Young" is shite as well... but each to their own, I just get fed up of EVERY bowie album post "Scary Monsters" being called either "his best since Scary Monsters or not as good as Scary Monsters".

Kill me, but I'd listen to Lodger over Scary any day - "Look Back in Anger", "Boys Keep Swinging", "Move On", "D.J", "African Night Flight"...its great, and you can tell that Franz Ferdinand like that one.





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Jock Mooney


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If you were to take 3 or 4 of the weaker tracks from This Is Hardcore, I think it would have been a lot stronger and stood the test of time much better.


 Couldn't agree more. I love the first HALF of Hardcore, but for me my ear turns off after TV Movie, which I think is underated - a subtle gentle song is needed after the punch in the face that is "This is Hardcore".

I find the second half of the album dissapointing and dull. "Sylvia" just sounds like treading water to me. "...Barry" is boring not seductive. The rest is just stodge...bar "I'm a Man".

I always go back to this song but I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE that "It's a Dirty World" didn't make it to the album. "Like A Friend" would have been better on there as well - it needed to be a ten tracker of gloriousness. If you are going to be downbeat and depressing you should do it in a condensed burst...otherwise its too heavy man. They were having a bad time and I think they should have gone with it, rather than sort of be depressed. I like the idea of ending with "The professional" as it just sounds so weary and exhausted.

The Fear
Party Hard
It's a Dirty World
Help the Aged
TV Movie
Dishes
I'm a Man
This is Hardcore
Like a Friend
The Professional



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ArrGee


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I think pretty much every album from Bowie from Hunky Dory thru to Let's Dance was pretty good.  Some better than others, but overall to make such good music over such a long time span is very impressive.

As for doing away with singles, I'm of the opposite opinion.  These days I predominately buy 7" singles, and they tend to retail at about 99p.  I like single artwork, it's a little cruder than  album artwork and more quirky.  I bought the Clash box set in 7" vinyl recently.  IMHO nothing beats wasting time sticking singles on a turntable on after another (just wish I had time to do it).  Even with CD/DVD singles, I like the videos or even the remix facilities (Killers - Somebody Told Me had this), and again they cost no more than £1.99.   The afore mentioned Razorlight once provided exclusive downloads on some singles (5 live tracks with one of them). 

I don't buy too many albums and when I do, the artist often re-releases them with bonus tracks (Bloc Party are VERY guilty of this; I have two very different versions of Silent Alarm and there is another knocking around).  I can normally wait until they hit the bargain bins unless they are limited editions.



-- Edited by ArrGee at 10:53, 2007-04-26

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nomis


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Am I the only person in the world who likes This house is condemned?

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Jock Mooney


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Yes.

To me I suspect that the tracklist for "Separations" hadn't been decided on until quite close to it's release - this could be completely wrong. To me it would appear that rather than "give away" anymore songs to Fire the band decided to just tack on this rather obvious filler to make it an "album".

The reasons why I dislike it so much? Well, after listening to the brilliant trio of "Countdown", "My Legendary Girlfriend" then "Death II" it comes as a massively dull flat end to the otherwise brilliant listening experience.

The slower songs after "Love is Blind" build dramatically and the pace is great, until "This House..." and we are just left bored. The Quality of the recording is also very poor, sounding like a home demo. Its not Jarvis either is it? Is that Russell talking?


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The Idiot


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This House Is Condemned is by far and away the best thing Pulp ever did.  It's just a shame they didn't follow that route in the nineties rather than all that disco-indie tat.

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littlesaint


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The Orb has an album with six songs on, but most of them are pushing ten minutes.

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Freek


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Prince's third album, Dirty Mind, consisted of 8 demo's considered good enough to release as an album in 1980. It also played a part that his first 2 lp's had cost way too much...

but it's a brilliant 30 minutes lp

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Frisko2000


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i heard that Prince used the demos for Dirty Mind to get the label to give up the cash to record them, then kept the cash and released the demos.  i probably made that up though. 

and Lodger is great.  and side one of Low is some of Bowie's best work of the 70s, thus, overall.  the rest, i believe, was discarded material from a soundtrack for a film that was never released. 

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The Idiot


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The second side of Low wasn't exactly discarded material from the proposed Man Who Fell To Earth soundtrack; rather, his unused demos from that project were his first experiments with electronic instrumentals, which he developed much further when it came to recording Low with Eno and Tony Visconti.  Apparently Bowie sent Nicolas Roeg a message after completing Low saying this is what he would have done for the soundtrack, but Roeg had been more interested in an Americana sound at the time.  Banjos and shit.

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