Filler-free double albums: are there any?

Then, no.

 

Sweet Child/Pentangle

 

Back to the Roots/John Mayall is pretty formidable.

 

Sign o the times
The River

Sure there are tracks on each that I don't care for but I wouldn't call any of them filler. Springsteen had enough fully recorded tracks to release a 4 or 5 disk album so no tracks were included to 'fill' out the album. Prince had even more!

 

Double albums really mean vinyl and all the great ones have been mentioned here...Pat Metheny Group - The Way Up which runs in at 68 minutes is a really a double (just 4 tracks altho one is only 5 minutes) and is near perfection for me ...

 

I only use "filler" in its literal sense--tunes that the artist came up with only for the purpose of filling time, and where they didn't put much thought into it--they just say something like, "Okay guys, let's just jam on a 12-bar blues progression in E for five minutes." Filler in the literal sense doesn't imply that the tune isn't enjoyable. Maybe the band has the ability to jam blues in E for five minutes so that it's extraordinary. For example, any Jimi Hendrix band would be able to make smokin' filler. "They could play the phone book" and it would be great.

It's actually hard to know whether a tune is filler in this sense. But I don't think there are a lot of albums with literal filler.

At any rate, there are very few double albums where I don't enjoy all of the tracks. In fact, offhand I can't think of one, although that might partially be due to the fact that I just woke up and I'm groggy, especially after taking a Benadryl late last night (because I was itching like crazy--road rash wounds are in the final stages of healing from a wipeout on my bicycle a few weeks ago).

 

The 10-minute repetitive instrumental "Underture" could have been trimmed by several minutes without taking away from the story.

 

Finally someone mentioned the White Album. I love it from beginning to end, including "Revolution 9." "Wild Honey Pie" hardly counts as "filler" since it was a joke and only a minute long.

 

Paul Kelly gossip fits the bill.

 

Bee Gees - Odessa. It's only 65 minutes long and it does contain 3 instrumentals, but they are very majestic and melodic instrumentals. Superb songs throughout the 4 sides.

 

Except for the ones that are augmented with bonus tracks, most CDs that run for over an hour and were originally released on vinyl were double albums. There are a few exceptions, though, like Todd Rundgren's 68-minute Initiation which was squeezed onto one vinyl LP. As for the single CDs that are around 70 minutes or longer, almost all of them are double albums on vinyl.

 

Donna Summer BAD GIRLS, most definitely. Not a single reason to move the needle forward. It's one of those albums that features deep cuts better than its singles, which of course are classics on their own.

 

Agree 100%! Every song, every note, every word of narration - all of it matters.

 

None of the actual songs are filler, but IMO, Stevie sometimes has a tendency toward excessive repetition, especially on the back-to-back "As" (over 7 minutes) and "Another Star" (over 8 minutes). I love epic-length songs, but when they are stretched out primarily with repetition, some editing might be in order.

 

I totally agree about the original double album. However, the double CD reissue with the "penalty tracks" is another matter. the 38 straight minutes of bad movie dialogue is one of the most blatant examples of filler I can imagine. What was Frank thinking?

 

I love the GYBR album, but can't stand "Dirty Little Girl." A trite misogynist Bernie lyric set to one of Elton's most uninspired melodies, and the thing slogs on for over 5 minutes. Replace it with the orphan single B-side "Screw You", and you have a pretty solid double album.

 

"Deep cuts" is just a simpler way of saying "Relatively obscure album tracks that were not hit singles." "Deep cuts" saves time and breath.

 

ISB :U

Elton: Goodbye etc.

 

I assume many Live albums would fit the bill.

Dire Straits Alchemy comes to mind.

 

It’s funny. I was thinking about Wild Honey Pie this morning. I was remembering the days before I knew way too much about the Beatles and how I could hear John singing on it.

 

Emerson, Lake and Palmer - Works, Volume 1. Yes, it has 3 sides of solo material, but IMO, it's all good, showing the 3 members' diversity as well as one side where they gel as a group.
And I wholeheartedly agree with all of the posts that mention Layla. That one is solid throughout.

 

Since double live albums were sort of excluded, I'm guessing that double "Best of" comps and Various Artists anthologies are excluded as well, since that's a fairly easy way to put together an all killer-no filler double album, but there are certainly hundreds of great ones out there.

 

I enjoy the dialogue track. I just don't want it in the middle of the album. (And I like "Tengo Na Minchi Tanta" a lot, too, but it just doesn't fit on Uncle Meat. It should have been a bonus track on The Man From Utopia.)

 

I've always thought of "deep cuts" as simply "stuff that hardly ever gets played on the radio/in concert/by party DJs/etc."

 

White Album is a statement,a manifesto on the history and current state of,pop music. Even though there are songs we may not like,every song is essential.