Double Albums That Should Have Been Single Albums

The River-Bruce Springsteen

 

Freak Out-Mothers of Invention


Evan

 

Cream - Wheels of Fire. They could have fit Crossroads on to the first album and dumped the rest.

 

Mellon Collie And The Infinite (and infinite and infinite and infinite) Sadness.

 

Songs in the Key of Life: just too many extra long songs and, well, too many songs!

Chicago III and VII

 

I hereby declare that no one is allowed to say The Beatles (White Album) in response to this thread.

 

Use Your Illusion - Guns n Roses

 

The Wall

that was the easiest question all day!

 

Good call on the Guns & Roses...

 

definitely Use Your Illusion. Most double albums could have been one. Exceptions being The Wall and Quadrophenia.

 

It was either that, or just wait for the inevitable... (tick tick tick...)

 

I second the motion.

 

Lou Reed-The Raven [not sure it should even have been a single cd]

 

There are double albums that I think you could make shorter on CD without cutting them down to the length of a single LP. For example, I wouldn't want to cut any of the songs with lyrics from Quadrophenia, but I think you could easily cut "The Rock." It's yet another restatement of the four instrumental themes that by that time you've heard over and over again throughout the rest of the album ("Love Reign O'er Me" ends up following an instrumental version of itself!). While I'm sure Pete Townshend can make a 10-page argument for it being there conceptually, to me it seems like padding to get the album to four sides. You could probably trim some of the instrumental restatments of these themes elsewhere too. But to cut it down to 40 minutes... too much would be lost.

I think The Wall would probably also be shorter (but not LP short) if they hadn't had to stretch it over four sides.

 

Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral.

Actually, all Trent's output would make great EPs.

 

Prince- Sign of the Times

I personally think "The Wall" is a bit rambling in places, but that's just my opinion.
Add "Electric Ladyland" to the list of great doubles.

 

What about triple albums that should've been singles?

Prince - Emancipation.

 

Out of curiosity, what would you cut to make it a single album? This'd mean losing half the album - yeah, you could fit more than that onto a CD, but we have to keep it to single LP length to match the format in which it was originally released...

 

Excellent call. WAY too much filler on that one. Not sure if it'd be a classic at one CD, but it'd certainly be more listenable. Normally I'd argue that too much is never a bad thing - I can always skip songs I don't like - but the ratio of crap to good is so poor here that I don't bother with the album. It's too much of a chore to wade through it...

 

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Blue Moves.

 

Sandanista! would have made a great album-and-a-half.

 

Physical Graffiti is good enough to be a double LP

 

I'm saving The Raven for a thread - music my pets liked/hated, she'd leave the room the few times I played The Raven.

as for my choice to condense, sorta cheating, but Sandanista

and while it was 1 cd I think I could have made a good old fashioned 9 song 35 minute album out of A Bigger Bang

 

they could have included a 3rd disc that was blank and it would still be a killer, god what an album! And fantastic packaging too.