Anybody else prefer shorter albums?

[THE MACHINE]

That feeling when your favorite rapper is about to drop an album. Then the track listing is released and you see 20 songs.


It just gives you the feeling that the project will have no direction and your gonna get about 7 filler tracks or struggle reaches for a hit single. You listen anyway and daydream on some songs because the album just goes everywhere. Give me between 11-14 tracks, any more than that I start to get nervous. This is probably why I like Scarface albums so much. Just feels like a solid project and you want more when it's over.

What say you?

 

[Inspect Her Deck]

Pretty much what you said.

Cohesiveness starts to falter when you incorporate too many tracks, and also because a lot of those tracks are label requirements to be hit singles and may detract from the thematic focus of the album.

Some albums have been able to pull it off with 15+ tracks e.g. OB4CL.

But I mean, the general consensus GOAT (not mine) is Illmatic, and that's 10 tracks. Short, sweet and to the point.

 

[Frida Giezman]

Amen.

 

[Mr. Negative]

yeah it's gotten to the point where there's like two or three songs on albums that I've never heard because I turn it off after track 12-14.

 

[NoHalfWay]

Well the consensus AOTY is long as fukk so... guess it depends on the artist.

 

[Lights .]

Illmatic

 

[NasirJr]

100%

When i see a tracklist of like 20 songs im like

 

[mortuus est]

i like albums that actually last an hour

ep's should be 15mins-to 30mins

 

[Soundwave]

I think one of the reasons My Name Is My Name was so well received was that it was short (besides the fact that it was good) ... seems like every album nowadays has a Best Buy edition, a Target edition, a iTunes edition ... just give us the best 10-12 tracks and call it a day

 

[Dixon Cider]

When I see a double disc and each disc has like 20 songs (Yes Im referring to the documentary 2) I'm very apprehensive but the games album was crack although After about 12 songs in I was satisfied so honestly couldnt tell you about the 16 other songs or whatever bonus etc shyt after

 

[YBM]

15 tracks is the best. I dont mind a skit in that list too

 

[Dixon Cider]

Gibbs album was great
Future ds2 was

 

[RichForever]

Agreed. For me, I generally prefer albums to have about 9-14 songs max. That's the perfect amount of tracks for listening to an album in one sitting.

 

[Inspect Her Deck]

Tbh it isn't really as much about tracks as it is about the duration of an album time-wise. Madvillainy has a lot of tracks but isn't a very long album.

Ideal listening length is anywhere from 50-60 mins, though there are exceptions (either less than 50 or more than 1 hour).

 

[1-8-7-Skillz]

Its always a matter of quality control to me. If you fill an album with 20 certified great tracks, than thats amazing. However most rappers aint got that quality control, so they end up including filler songs, "hit singles" the labels want, the obligatory track for the girls and so on on their album and in the end it sucks....
My favorite album ever, and DEFINETELY one of the greatest, if not THE greatest hip hop album, "Doggystyle" wasn't even released in its complete form, there were some leftover tracks and other aspects they couldn't finish in time so if they released it as planned the album wouldve also been longer. But with the leftover songs we know of, the absolute GOAT-ness of death rows output at that time (courtesy of the extreme quality control back then as opposed to shytting out one song after another) and the zone everyone was in during those days we would have an even longer but even greater album.
So it depends on these factors, and btw it doesn't really matter if an album has only 10 tracks or 20, if theyre all classics it feels like time is flying when you listen to it. However the risk of ruining the album is bigger if you include more songs. But nowdays there are enough "rappers" who couldn't even manage a good ep let alone an album