If it were a detective story, it would be called The Mysterious Case of Shortening Albums. Okay, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift have released records in recent weeks that are so long that they give the impression of having put everything they've recorded into them. Cowboy Carter contains 27 pieces, the complete version of The Tortured Poets Department even 31. And yet the opposite trend can be glimpsed. For some contemporary pop artists and certainly for some veterans, the right length of a record is an hour or less.
Radical Optimism by Dua Lipa contains 11 songs and is only the latest in a series of not too long albums, from Guts by Olivia Rodrigo (12 pieces) a Evolution by Sheryl Crow (10) a Rustin' in the Rain by Tyler Childers (7) on 4batz's debut U Made Me St4r (11). Billie Eilish's new album will be released on Friday Hit Me Hard and Soft and will contain 10 songs, the Avett Brothers' next nine. You can listen to three in a row in the time it takes you to hear everything The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology.
This was the length of albums in the 60s, 70s and 80s due to the limits posed by vinyl. Even today, record companies quote Thriller by Michael Jackson and What's Going On by Marvin Gaye, albums of nine songs each, like perfect records that don't abuse the patience of those who listen to them.
Duration limits changed radically with the arrival of the CD which allowed almost 80 minutes of music to be released, which is double the average length of a vinyl record. This encouraged artists to put whatever songs they wanted on records, or almost anything. If they were also authors or co-authors of the songs, they could count on an additional profit on the publishing front, which only encouraged verbosity. In the streaming era, then, the more songs you can listen to in streaming, the better the ranking and the higher the revenues.
But then, how come we come across shorter records today? This could have to do with the revival of vinyl, which can contain a maximum of five or six songs per side. According to Joe Kentish, head of English Warner who was Dua Lipa's A&R for years, the pop star has always liked compact discs, from her debut (12 songs) to Radical Optimism for whom “he only wanted songs capable of composing a great album”.
And then there's the struggle to capture listeners' attention. Music has to compete with other forms of entertainment. “The experience of listening to a record has changed,” says a senior executive at a major label. «In the past you put on The Dark Side of the Moon, you turned off the lights and listened to him. It was an all-encompassing experience. Today albums are just one of many things available to people.”
According to Kentish, shorter albums satisfy some listeners' need to quickly stream from one artist or album to another. «The more you stream music, the less likely you are to hear a record from start to finish. In this context, people want short albums. We try to keep attention alive.”
Another important factor is the ease with which it is possible to record and publish music today. Lipa and Rodrigo, to give two examples, have published expanded reissues of Future Nostalgia And Guts. A lot of music is recorded «and even if you don't add “chapter 1” to the title, that's essentially what we're talking about», explains a record producer. «The album is no longer the entire meal, it is a dish which is often followed by another. Maybe it's a cynical way of thinking, but this is the reality.”
It's a risky move. After the publication of Guts, some fans accustomed to long albums have complained online about the alleged paucity of Rodrigo's album. “It's really true that today they call anything an album,” one wrote, “practically an EP,” another commented.
Maybe they need to start adapting to this standard. «There's a desire to maintain a certain coherence throughout an album and to release only the best songs», says Kentish. «As they say in these cases, all killer, no filler».
From Rolling Stone US.
