kanye west graduation

I don't get how people sit through 80-min monstrosities, esp. ones by people whose obnoxious tendencies become exacerbated as they outstay their welcome. (That said, I love The College Dropout even as I would like to take an ax to portions of it. Late Registration doesn't have enough good material to build a 40-minute album, let alone a disc-filler.

) <--- close parenthesis

I don't get how people get so intimidated by the thought of paying for 80 minutes of music when they can so easily pick and choose the songs they like or break it up into multiple listening sessions. I'm just saying, I think fewer songs more often than not merely gives the impression of higher quality control, and I'd rather get my money's worth and get a bunch of new songs and make up my mind about which ones I like than pay all that money for maybe 8 songs I haven't heard on the radio already.

^^^OTM

even when albums are 10 tracks long i rarely have the time to sit and listen to the whole album front to back. If I do, I've probably also got time to listen to another five tracks

I suppose I should just start a thread for the Great Rap Album Length Debate already since I seem to have this argument a couple times a year, but I really hate this shrinking album trend. Hey Swizz Beatz, you made 80 billion songs this year, but when I pay cash money for your album, all you've got are 10 songs, a remix, and a voicemail from Snoop Dogg? Fuck you!

but WHAT A VOICEMAIL!

I dunno, I still hold on to notions that albums should be listened to front to back in one sitting, and the idea of correlating value to amount of music is just entirely foreign to me for whatever reasons. I never really want to listen to any one person for more than an hour at a time or so. I find myself never even listening to long albums more than once or twice a lot of times, even when I like a certain number of songs on them.

I guess I find long albums intimidating.

Honestly, Reverend, I feel pretty much the same way. I tend to listen to albums in one sitting and do get impatient with longer ones. With rock and underground rap, I generally prefer shorter albums. I just feel differently with mainstream rap/pop records where half the songs are put out for media saturation beforehand and there's a lot less to discover or hear with fresh ears on the album itself.

'd rather get my money's worth and get a bunch of new songs and make up my mind about which ones I like than pay all that money for maybe 8 songs I haven't heard on the radio already.

Capitalist!

Seriously, if I had to pick and choose from 80 minutes worth of music, chances are that it's not a good album! You don't discard tracks from good albums.

Yeah, I can understand that, but I've gotten a bit lazy about searching stuff out early, like in this case I'd only heard "Stronger" and "Can't Tell Me Nothing" beforehand. (xp)

the thread al wants to start is less about "album length" and more about what an "album" is, i think--because isn't it going to come down to ppl who hold the view that albums are in their entirety statements or works of art that should be listened to from front to back vs. ppl who hold the view that buying an album is like buying 12-18 songs and sequencing is a secondary concern if one at all

I should say that for me, 8 songs I haven't heard already is more or less ideal.

max otm

i mean obv those are extreme positions and most of us probably fall in the middle somewhere but that seems to be the sense i get

The funny thing is I'm not even a pick & choose/discard songs type at all, although I'm making a devil's-advocate argument from that perspective to an extent. My deal is more that I want to listen to it all the way through, but I'd rather listen to a long and inconsistent record and be like "OK, there was some bad stuff, but plenty of good stuff too," than listen to a short and inconsistent record and at the end feel like "that's it? that's all? Van Damme!" And really the argument is only really pertinent here because Kanye is pretty inconsistent by nature and so those are the only 2 options.

plus some of us are trying to fit things on cassettes, people

I don't have the fucking time to turn every single rap album I get in 2007 into a best-of mixtape.

I know kids no longer think of albums as sequences of great songs, but as a critic I listen to too much music to waste time on dud songs: the more songs I skip on a second listen, the less apt I am to give the album props.

lots of songs i skip on first listen end up being the best ones

^^^^^otm

i think it has a lot to do with how we listen to music, too. most of my CD/album listening is done in the car and i dont mind long albums because every time i start my car it picks up in the place where it left off--im not starting from track 1 and missing track 18 every time.

what about when u were all pruning yr fantasy ugk albums last month, still repping filler then?

I think a 29-track behemoth that is easily one of the best/replayable albums of the year might be an exception to the rule, whereas trimming the fat from this new Kia Shine album is something I would wish on no man.

i do think skits should be banned

I tend not to mind double albums so much because I just end up listening to each disc separately rather than trying to force it all in one go. That said, Underground Kingz is remarkably consistent for an album of its length and the only thing I'd remove are the crunk tracks.

max otm again

You'd leave the Jazze Pha?

xpost yeah rap double albums tend to be way more consistently listenable than rock double albums, probably because rap albums have more guests and more varied production aesthetics (or at least, they tend to, certainly over 2 cds)

I love skits when they come on an album, but hate them when they come up in shuffle.

I couldn't imagining listen to Doc's Da Name without "Pain In The Ass Stewardess" leading into Da Goodness

Or "This ain't no motherfuckin P" on Master P's Ghetto D. Classick.

There's a really funny skit on the Baby Boy Da Prince album.

dude seriously i dont think i ever listen to any record straight thru, even tracks i love - its usually a diff config every time

xp that skit is just the intro to make em say ungh not its own track

THIS RAPPIN 4TAY, WHOS THIS

rap double albums tend to be way more consistently listenable than rock double albums

maybe because the only rock 2cd in recent memory is Stadium Arcadium.

Jazze Pha makes more sense in the context of a UGK album way better than Lil Jon or Swizz Beatz.

I'm not anti-skits per se (hell, I quoted a De La skit a few posts ago), but I do admire Kanye for going for skit overboard on his first album (the two consecutive skits really pissed me off) to no skits at all on his third.

going for = going FROM, obviously

also NONE of kanye's skits have ever really been funny

"If this is P, lemme hear you say unnnngh"

xp "broke phi broke" is negative funny

Kanye's skits are good context-builders to his more conceptual albums

except that his "concepts" are annoying and not really interesting! o man a college degree is useless!! thanx kanye!!1! drop some more wisdom pls!!

it warmed my heart when I read that at a listening party Kanye said that the album would feature "no fake Bernie Mac!"

Actually, Graduation only has one less song than either of his first two albums, it's just that they have, like, ten mins worth of skits on them.

With the bonus tracks, my count comes to 15 songs on the record. Which is not short.

Mine doesn't have any bonus tracks.

Mine neither.

Did you get it at Best Buy or ZShare?

best buy one doesn't have bonus tracks.

college dropout--1:16:13 (14 tracks, incl. 12 minute final track, 7 skits)
late registration--1:10:26 (17 tracks (1 bonus) 5 skits)
graduation--51:18 (13 tracks (no bonus) 0 skits)

these are the editions i have

help i cannot stop listening to "flashing lights" k thx bye

Yeah Late Registration has 16 songs if you count "Late" and both versions of "Diamonds."

I didn't get "Flashing Lights" on the first couple listens but it really stuck with me today.

he hates the paparazzis even more than the nazis