Make Mine A Double
I've just heard the new Paul Weller CD. It's had pretty much universal acclaim and it's really rather impressive. I say this as someone who hasn't taken much notice of his output since the early Style Council days.
One thing intrigues me, though. The album runs to 70 plus minutes spread over 2 discs. This is touted as the special limited edition, and I believe that there is a single disc edition with fewer songs and thus a shorter running time available. But who on earth would want the single disc edition? Most of Weller's audience are fairly fanatical and I can't see the devoted fan being happy to lose four or five songs to save a couple of quid.
This also got me thinking about double albums in general and a discussion I had with a friend a while ago about fair to decent double albums that would have made fantastic single albums. The ones we agreed on were Sandinista by the Clash (a triple LP, I know, but we still counted it as the Cd comes on two discs), The River by Springsteen and, dare we say it, The Beatles' White Album (although we could not agree on which songs should be left off).
Any more for any more?
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Don't know about this ...
.. but I can think of loads of albums that would make a good single. God knows I've bought a few.
Sandinista
Actually I love Sandinista, I love its dubby reggae feel and even the novelty kids singing songs..I would argue that "London Calling" could be sliced down to a single one and Cut The Crap could easily be cut to a 45.
22 Dreams has 21 songs on it
I'll be getting the single version as I've little interest in the extra demos/instrumentals that come on the second disc. I was also in the minority on the chap's latest tour wanting more of the new stuff and less of the old stuff, maybe 6 or 7 songs tops from the new album I think in a two hour gig. A friend had a similar experience at a Spiritualized gig with just 3 songs from the new A&E album in a gig lasting an hour and 45 minutes.
The Beatles Anthology
The stuff actually worth hearing on this stupidly indulgent, six disc set can be neatly distilled onto a single CD. Throw in the two 'new' recordings as separately available as two sides of a single - in keeping with The Beatles' history of never putting their singles on their albums so as not to cheat the public - and not only does it become a lot better, but they probably would have beaten Michael Jackson to number 1.
The complete six disc marathon could have been available on mail order or something, for the fans that simply have to have every take that was rendered unreleasable by one of the band laughing or breaking something.
Always leave 'em wanting more, lads...
Except....
...the records in the Anthology series were some of EMI's best selling records of any kind ever. The first volume sold more copies on the day of its release (450,000) than any other record ever. Think about that. Thirty years after their break up they were more important to the EMI revenue line than Pink Floyd, Radiohead and Robbie Williams. The Beatles probably sold more copies of Anthology than any of their legit records because they were releasing them into a market that is immeasurably bigger than the one into which they released, say, Revolver. The three remaining Beatles will have been given a substantial advance on that basis and, as I've advanced the unpopular argument before, there are very few people who turn their backs on huge cheques for not much work. I certainly wouldn't. I bet the Anthology was the biggest ever payday for Ringo, let alone Pete Best. There are very few musicians who are kept by their back catalogue, no matter how lucrative it may appear to be. Why do you think Jimmy Page was so keen to take Led Zeppelin on tour?
True
The Anthology was hugely successful, of course. However, not once since the first time I listened to them have I ever thought to myself, "Hmmm. I really fancy listening to The Beatles Anthology" as I could with virtually all of their other albums. If there was a one disc edition with no filler on it whatsoever, it might be different.
Totally agree...
...that Anthology series was overegged. There's some great stuff there but it's scarcely worth it when you have to plough through all that filigree of laugh-heavy takes and alternate takes that sound just like the ones that got released. That stuff should have just stayed in the videos IMHO.
I liked 'Free As A Bird' and 'Real Love' though.
You'll think I'm a sad git for knowing about it,
but you should see the amount of studio out-takes that are available on bit torrent sites. Every last doodle. I have gigs of th... er, yes.
A Perfect double
is Sign of the times by Prince - includes some of best ever songs and the musicianship is of a consistently high standard.
Every band...
...should, at some point in their career, experiment with sex, drugs and the creation of some kind of overblown, multi-disc magnum opus. A colossal monument, like the pyramids of Egypt or the Millennium Dome, that will stand long after the individual members of the group have gone their separate ways, or died of drug overdoses.
As an habitual record buyer, the release of a double still feels like an event. I love it all: The pure excitement at the sheer overwhelming volume of material; the tracks that instantly stand out; the disc that you initially favour over the other; the lesser tracks that you discount as ballast, but which come into their own sometimes years later and are what give the record its character.
An album which I have long since stopped putting away and now keep in a small pile of mainstays next to my hi-fi is The Smashing Pumpkins' preposterously titled Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness - the generation X equivalent of Brian Wilson's "teenage symphonies to God". It's an album that makes me pine for my adolescence. I wouldn't take anything from it, or add anything more to it.
Pumpkins - 'Smashing'
I fully agree on the 'Mellon Collie' front - a marvellous double. I even went one step further and picked up the limited edition triple vinyl version, which remains one of my favourite 12" purchases. Not much was added to it, but boy howdy does it look pretty...
How many discs are superfluous in Chris Rea's recent epic?
All answers considered!!