Entertainment For Lively Minds
Albums Under 40 mins.
I bought my first Tom Jones album on Friday and reckon Praise And Blame is bloody fantastic! I know this kind of album has been done before by Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond, but I love it and hope it's not a flop for Mr Jones. Sometimes, I have this strange tendency to worry about possible poor sales for mega rich artists, step forward Dicky Ashcroft, although I know your name isn't highly regarded around these parts!
"Did Trouble Me" seems to be the song Mr Jones has been waiting all his life to sing and I nearly melt when the banjo comes in. Beautiful stuff.
Running in at 38 mins and 12 seconds it's the perfect length and doesn't overstay its welcome. I guess this has been asked before, but the best albums are always under 40 mins aren't they?
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Totally Agree
Its my first purchase of Tom from Welsh Wales too.
Occasionally the production is a little to crisp and clean but overall its great.
Did Touble Me and Burning Hell are the highlights.
This Jones fella could have a future at this singing lark.
Help With Tom Jones
I know what you mean re production, the drums are a little too clean, but it's a minor niggle. I watched the BBC programmes on Tom Jones a few weeks ago and never realised just how big a deal he was in America with his own TV show and his late night sing a longs with Elvis!
I'll have to look up some more of his albums, not sure where to start, I guess someone will assist me?
I wouldn't bother, he was reclaimed ironically by J. Ross & co.
in the 80's but most of the time he was like a pound shop Elvis with a charisma bypass and no tunes.
He's a singer
looking for a song and suitable arrangement. And with "Did Trouble Me" he's found it.
Poor Tom
Surely he must have done at least one good album! I guess he was maybe more of a singles man!
That banjo
comes out of nowhere.
And to think, I had an elder brother that fought the punk wars and here I am "bigging up" a banjo on a Tom Jones album.
"Bigging Up A Banjo"
Can I call my next (i.e. first) album that, please?
It'll be a pretend album, of course.
Banjo
You're right, it really does come out of nowhere, but it works so well. Sometimes it's the simple things like this in life that give me so much pleasure.
Reminds me
The difference between a banjo and a trampoline?
You take take your shoes off to jump on a trampoline.
(I'm here all week)
A banjo moment
par excellence is on Alison Krauss's cover of McCartney's "I Will". You'll probably think that's something that shouldn't work but it certainly does for me.
Incidentally, I believe that a young Mr Jones started off singing R'n'B numbers (old-school usage) in the clubs of Pontypridd and the valleys before going cabaret. I don't know if any of that is on record anywhere.
A quick browse through my iTunes...
Born To Run - 39.30
The Nightfly - 38.50
Blue - 36.10
Fables Of The Reconstruction - 39.30
Arc of a Diver 40 exactly
You may well be (W)right there...
Cheers
Born To Run and The Nightfly are two of my favourite albums, I never even thought about the length of them.......until now. Think I will have to play The Nightfly tonight!
Weren't most LP's
about 40 mins in length. I seem to remember only Genesis and like Prog bands regularly hitting the 45 minute mark.
God I miss my vinyl!
Genesis used
to exceed 45 quite regularly, so you needed a C60 just to tape one album ...
Agreed
I think 40-45 mins just to be safe, but the point is well made. Without checking I am sure as can be that the Bowie Berlin trilogy would fit this rule.
Too many albums are just too long. If I see more than about 10 tracks I get worried that there will be filler. It happened again today with the Arcade Fire, I found myself thinking is this still going! Not because it is bad, but it need to be exceptional to retain interest beyond that.
As usual...
...its Station to Station.
37 minutes.
David, you are so right. Anything over 45 mins is usually a waste, notable exceptions being Exile on Main St, and Superunknown, by Soundgarden.
The key litmus test, of course,
was whether an album would fit on one side of a 90 minute cassette
If you had to carry one or more tracks over to the other side it really screwed things up
1 entire album on each side of a tape was perfect
Too True
Very good point indeed, I remember taping albums as a youngster and it was always a nuisance when you had to put two or three remaining tracks on the B-Side. After this, what do you fill the rest of Side B with? Normally I put a few of the said artists B-sides or sometimes I owould attempt a 30 min compilation which never really worked!
London Calling is superb & it
is longer than 40 minutes. I rest my case m'lud.
There are exceptions of course ...
Genesis: Selling England By The Pound: 53:21
Sufjan Stevens : Illinois: 73:59! (I guess this would have been a double album)
Dylan: Bringin It all Back Home: 47:23
But somehow 40 mins or just under does feel right:
Fleetwood Mac: Rumours: 39:43
HJH: Revolver: 34:58
Jethro Tull: Stand Up : 37:48
Jellyfish
Bellybutton 39:32
Ah ha. An excuse for this!!!
Joyous! Thanks Simon!
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers debut
is about 35 mins from soup to nuts.
Not a second is wasted.
Hello Andrew!
It's been a while. I'm sitting here trying to learn the chords of Thinking of You by Sister Sledge.
With wine.
You?
It has,my friend.
Coincidentally that's exactly what I'm doing.
Apart from learning Sister Sledge chords and drinking.
No, I'm just a-mooching. I haven't learnt any new chords in about 15 years. Once I had power chords nailed I seemed to stop. They're all I seem to need.
EDIT: Oh, don't forget to tell us when you've passed your exams!
Ah.
Lets just say, as Meat Loaf almost did, One out of three ain't bad. Resits in September and November. Rather pissed off about it at the time, but I'm a philosophical type, and once the kitchen was re painted, and the crockery replaced, you'd hardly have known anything happened!
So, in answer to your request, I will tell you when I pass! Soon.
But they were just the first go
They don't count. Never have. I said the same to my parents when I made a cock of my A levels (and look at me NOW!)
Don't you worry. You're a genius and we have every faith.
Good luck, sir!
Back to the Sisters of Sledge with you and enjoy.
No.
Fed up with Sister Sledge. Now attempting "Fell On Black Days" by Soundgarden. That should get them rocking in their seats on Saturday night.....
Thank you as ever for your thoughts. In all seriousness, I was disappointed, but, lets face it, I'm 40, three fantastic nippers, a brill wife and a good job. Getting these would be a personal challenge achieved, nothing more, nothing less. And it would be nice to have letters after my name, but I rarely lose sleep over it. Over the last four years I've passed 7 of the 9 exams I have sat, so I'm doing OK.
Thanks for listening, Dr. Beezer. £150 for the session, as usual?
Happy to help
Though I shall knock a tenner off the fee seeing as I nobbed off to bed while you were still posting!
Having said that with my own very special VAT rate it comes out at £67852.70.
A nice round figure.
Much like myself.
Sorry to gate crash your conversation.
That's a coincidence. I'm trying to teach myself guitar at the moment and I've been working out Thinking Of You by Sister Sledge as well. They're really nice chords to play aren't they.
Yes.
I happened upon them by accident whilst playing the opening chord to "Long Train Running" by the Doobie Brothers.
Looking forward to getting them right, and maybe gigging this song at the week end.
When I should really be studying.
Long Train Running
Is another one I've been messing with. Yep, same chords.
Good luck with the gig...and the studying :-)
Those particular chord voicings
are the foundation of many a disco stomp. The real trick is in the embellishments, slides. hammer-ons etc. to spice them up, not to mention the right-hand rhythm.
I remember when this was released Tom Petty
promoted it on the Nicky Horne show on Capital Radio and they did a phone in part. Some guy rang up and let fly because the album was so short and he thought it was poor value for money. When he had finished the rant Tom Petty just said "play it twice". Which I remember made me chuckle. Thanks for that memory.
Echo and The bunnymen's first
Crocodiles barely breaks the 35 minute mark and like many of the best above has not one ounce of fat.
Just about all
the Beatles' albums were routinely under 40 mins, but surely the shortest album by a major artist is Dylan's Nashville Skyline which comes in at an incredible 27 mins!
As for Tom Jones, he's either belting it out at full volume or he's not singing at all. He appears to have nothing in-between.
Witness his bombastic (not to say bizarre) version of Tennessee Waltz on the Chieftains' album Long Black Veil
dylan desire
well over 40 mins and on vinyl too
mind you the sound on the original always sounded a bit well...compressed
Beach Boys
Most of the early albums struggle to reach 30 mins. As for the Beatles, generally 30 to 35 for the first 6 or so.
I rather like short albums
I'd much rather an album have 30 minutes of brilliant stuff and then stop, than have 30 minutes of brilliant stuff and 25 minutes of filler, all mixed together.
Among the really short albums to have tickled the duco01's fancy over the years have been ...
Karen Dalton: It's so Hard to Know Who's Gonna Love You the best
(an absolute gem of all time, this)
Elvis Costello: My Aim is true
Nick Drake: Pink Moon
Nils Frahm: "Wintermusik" (beautiful solo piano stuff. Give it a go)
As recommended in this very parish just last week
Ron Davies' Silent Song Through the Land is a most agreeable way to pass just over 27 minutes.
Agreed
All my favourite LPs are under 40 minutes.
Byrds, Crickets, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Kinks, Beatles, Who, Dylan, Hendrix, Stones.....all of them.
I get irratated if albums are too much longer than half-an-hour (or books are over 250 pages or 45s are over 2:58!).
I take it
You're not a fan of Be Here Now (71:38) then?
Or
Like A Rolling Stone (6:09)
MacArthur Park (7:21)
Hey Jude (7:20)
America (by The Nice) (6:18)
>
Certainly not the first one.
If that's Oasis.....it is dire.
Sure Dylan and 'Hey Jude' (and you missed 'Desolation Row') but the 2:58 single/35 minute LP guide is simply not a bad one to use.
It never hindered Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, the Everlys or Little Richard.
I was just being facetious
I agree with you. Be Here Now is a load of bombastic wank. By Noel's own admission, it's what an album sounds like when you have too much money and drugs on tap.
Oh and I didn't include Desolation Row because I thought we were only talking about singles?
Todd Rundgren
regularly hit 50 mins+ on vinyl - Initiation is, if memory serves, the guts of 60 minutes. A Wizard A True Star is almost as long, and if I'm in the mood, isn't long enough. Downside to this is that the sound is extremely compressed on vinyl, and due to master tape issues, none of the CD resissues have been able to do justice to these albums.
Gary
Honourable exceptions
include Caravanserai and Abbey Road, neither of which could be fitted onto one side of a C90.
Your Majesty
But if you were really lucky a C90 of Abbey Road ends with "the end" not your majesty. Which is a bit of a result.
BTW, I never can understand the vitriol poured on Maxwell's silver hammer when Your Majesty is on the same record.
Nooooooooooooooo
I love the way Her Maj finishes off Abbey Road. To leave it off would be sacrilege. And as for Maxwell, I think he leavens the mixture really nicely.
Tsk. The very thought of editing the greatest album ever made. You are a scoundrel.
Slayer - Reign In Blood
28:56 of serious ass kicking. Although the expanded reissue stretches beyond the thirty minute mark.
Yes I agree
When I slot a CD into my player and the total time pops up, it slightly depresses me if it registers over 45 mins. I read a review of the new Arcade Fire album mentioning it was 50+ mins and it has almost stopped me buying it.
The Lemonheads
It's a shame about Ray: 29mins 46 seconds.
B-52's Mesapotamia
Well I like it.
The Strokes - Is This It
...after several years during the 90s when bands tried their hardest to fill the 70s minute CD capacity (Be Here Now? Heavy Soul anybody....?), The Strokes finally brought the short album back in vogue.
Obviously there are certain albums that worked well over the course of a 70 min CD (Primal Scream's Screamadelica and The Orb's UF Orb srping to mind) but the average rock band just can't go that distance without severely stretching the listeners patience. The Strokes album basically said - "hey - you don't have to fill the space just because its there..."
That said I'd MUCH rather listen to the epic new Janelle Monae album than anything by Tom Jones. Whereas the overhyped Speakerboxx / Love Below by her mentors, Outkast, was a classic example of overstretching the album's length, ArchAndroid truly is the real deal - delivering brilliance from start to finish.
Blue Nile - Hats
A touch under 40 minutes, I think. And not a second wasted.
#1 Album by Big Star
Just a smidge over 37 minutes from start to finish and not a single bad note to be heard.
I'm sure the Ramones' first album was 29 minutes or thereabouts.
Isn't that an optimum time for vinyl?
I may have dreamed this but I thought I heard once that there is an optimum amount of recording on Vinyl before the sound deteriorates. And that was about the 40 minute mark. Perhaps.
Certainly by the time you got to squeezing
30 mins/side the last few grooves were in deep trouble-this was a particular problem with trying to get Beethoven's 9th on 1 LP as the chorus is in full cry just at the wrong bit.
I'd like to believe that this is the piece that CD was designed to accomodate, though not clear:
http://www.snopes.com/music/media/cdlength.asp
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/12/dayintech_1216
Marilli-long
I admit I'm a Marillion fan, but if there was ever a case for doing an album under 40 mins it's them. Their last proper double album, Happiness Is The Road was just far too long and in my humle opinion had quite a lot of filler material on it. I actually struggle to listen to it all the was through and some of the better songs would have made up about 40 mins I reckon.
My aim is true
is a perfect album under 30 minutes unless you get the deluxe edition which runs for about the length of a marathon.
Heard the Tom Jones album in HMV and it sounded bloody great so I ordered it this week.
In these parts a Banjo is also a sandwich as in 'I had a cheese banjo for lunch"
Have to agree..
that most of the great albums are lithe not flabby, and for vinyl crackers like myself, longer playing times mean compressed sound, less air in the recording, and curtailed bass (often to be found in hits collections and suchlike).
One great album that rivets you for 57.54 though (and couldn't be a second less) is Dylan's Love and Theft. I've actually got it in CD, wonder what the vinyl version is like. Anybody know?
By the way..
it's got banjos on it too.
Even 40 minutes can test the limits of one's attention span..
Let's hear it for the E.P. - 20's plenty!
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/less-more-the-single-dead-long-liv...