base talk Rolling Stone: Albums are getting shorter (finally)! Thank you @DUALIPA @billieeilish

[Brooklyn Baby]

 

 

Beyoncé and Taylor Swift may have just dropped behemoth projects, but a spate of new releases suggests that albums are getting more concise.

BY DAVID BROWNE

New projects by Dua Lipa and Billie Eilish suggest that albums are, finally, getting shorter in tracks and run times. KEVIN WINTER/GETTY IMAGES/THE RECORDING ACADEMY; RODIN ECKENROTH/GETTY IMAGES

IF THIS STORY were a hard-boiled detective novel, the title might be The Case of the Mysteriously Shrinking Album.

Over the past few weeks, both Beyoncé and Taylor Swift unveiled projects that seemed to include every piece of music they had ever recorded for their respective albums: Cowboy Carter stretched out to 27 tracks, the complete version of The Tortured Poets Department to 31. But while critics and some fans grapple with that overload of material, another diametrically opposed trend is shaping up. For some modern pop artists, and a few veterans, nothing beats an album that can be digested during lunch hour.

Dua Lipa's new Radical Optimism, the latest example, clocks in at 11 songs and joins a list of relatively concise recent releases: Olivia Rodrigo's Guts (12 songs); Maggie Rogers' Don't Forget Me (10); 4batz's debut, u made me st4r (11); veteran Sheryl Crow's Evolution (10); and even country songwriter Tyler Childers' Rustin' in the Rain (7). Billie Eilish's upcoming Hit Me Hard and Soft, out next week, will be limited to 10 new tracks, while the new record by the Avett Brothers tops out at nine. One could easily listen to three of those in the same amount of time it would take to digest most of The Tortured Poets Department.

 

Of course, most classic albums from the Sixties through the Eighties stuck to those lengths because of the limitations of the LP format. To this day, record executives cite Michael Jackson's Thriller and Marvin Gaye's What's Going on (nine songs each) as examples of perfect records that didn't overstay their welcomes. Those restrictions flew out the studio window when the compact disc arrived in the Eighties. With running times that could extend to 80 minutes — twice the length of a typical vinyl album — the CD allowed artists to jam as many songs as they wanted onto a new album. If said artists wrote or co-wrote their own material, it could also result in a windfall of publishing income, which only encouraged self-indulgence. And in the streaming era, the more songs there are for fans to stream, the better an artist's chart placement and revenue.

 

So, why are albums suddenly drawing the short end of a stick? The trend could have something to do with the ongoing revival of the LP, a physical format that generally can't hold more than a half dozen or more songs per side; last year, 43 million LPs were sold, up 14 percent from the year before.

Joe Kentish, the Warner Brothers U.K. head who has been Dua Lipa's A&R executive since her first album, says he and Lipa always aim for a tighter statement, from her 12-song debut up to Radical Optimism. "With this album, she felt like she was there, conceptually and musically, really in the pocket," he says. "She only wanted to have the songs she felt made a great record."

Retaining listeners' attention — with so many other distractions vying for time — may also be playing into the trend, according to one senior major-label A&R executive. "For this generation, the album experience is much different," the executive says. "In the past you'd put on Dark Side of the Moon, turn off the lights, and listen. It was an immersive experience. Now albums are just one part of their menu."

Kentish agrees that more succinct albums are a way of combatting the behavior of some music listeners to bounce around streaming services, from one artist or album to another. "When you put music on a streaming service, there's a lower chance they'll be listening to it in that order," he says. "In that environment, it makes people want shorter records. You're trying to keep people's attention. You own the environment of what someone is listening to, to some extent."

 

The other label executive thinks that the ease with which new music can be recorded and released is also a factor: Lipa and Rodrigo, for instance, rolled out expanded editions of Future Nostalgia and Guts, respectively, with additional songs. "Everyone is recording a lot of music, and they're not calling a 10-song album 'chapter 1,' but it probably is," says the executive. "You think it's the whole meal but there's another entrée after that. I don't know if that's cynical, but it's the reality."

 

The move comes with some risks. When Guts arrived last summer, some Rodrigo fans, accustomed to long records, groused online about how supposedly little they were getting: "They really be calling anything an 'album' nowadays," wrote one. "So, basically an EP," posted another.

But fans may simply have to adjust. "There's a real desire to keep creative consistency and only have the best songs," says Kentish. "As they say, 'All killer, no filler.'"

[godmess]

This is literally not a real observation about anything. Albums of varying lengths are released every day. Useless magazine. 

[Gorjesspazze9]

Albums should be 10-12 tracks. Thats the perfect amount. Then 3-5 for a delux album at most. 

[geodude]

This is weird to me. I personally don't mind a lengthy album at all. If it's a good album of course i want more songs, especially if the artist takes years in between releases. CC and TTPD actually suited more songs because they were telling a story. It really just depends on the concept of the album. 

[AmericanIdol]

Agree, hate the desperate tactics of releasing 25+ tracks in an album to take advantage of streaming.

[Mr. Peanutbutter]

This is such a strange take.

 

Not every long album is bad and not every short album is good. Length is not what makes a storytelling good or bad lmao

[LoveInStereo]

Garbage take. If you don't have the attention span or time to listen to a longer body of work, make a playlist cherry picking your favourite moments. It's like a choose your own adventure. Who tf doesn't enjoy the freedom of options? Are people so lazy now they want all their choices made for them?And let's not reward Olivia by acting like she treated her fans to "another entree". One new song (don't get me started on the "vinyl only" scam she & others have been pulling lately). That was an after dinner mint!

[geodude]

And also "taking advantage" of streaming is a weird take when these shorter songs with a 2min run time take twice as short of time than 4min songs. To me shorter albums take advantage of tiktok and shorter attention spans 

[makeawish]

declaring a trend of short albums based on it being broken by precisely two high profile records before the norm reasserts itself, this is real magazine filler. i'm seeing here that it's risky to release a short album like guts when olivia fans are used to albums like sour which are *checks notes* *checks them again* exactly the same length, who employs these clowns

Edited May 10 by makeawish

[Richie.Valdez]

Stats-obsessed artists don't care if they put mediocre demo-material tracks on albums as long as they add streaming numbers.

[Cain]

Now they know damn well RO will not be a short album by this time next year 

[Reginald]

All Killer, No Filler

[Taste of Honey]

Poor eternal sunshine, which is actually one minute shorter than Radical Optimism but has 1 more track(of which one of them is an interlude).  

[QueenBeyoncé]

CC doesn't even feel long bc it's a great fkn album 

[KatyPrismSpirit]

the problem isnt really long or short. it's about the intention of the craft. theres amazing albums with 16 songs with no filler, theres amazing albums with only 8 songs. but some artists drop long albums for the sake of breaking records and that is when the intention becomes clear.

[Thor]

21 minutes ago, QueenBeyoncé said:

CC doesn't even feel long bc it's a great fkn album 

Then why is nobody listening to it?

[Michael196]

Lol, never witnessed a field where laziness continuously gets praised and rewarded, but as a wise woman once said… time is the ultimate truth teller 

[QueenBeyoncé]

11 minutes ago, Thor said:

Then why is nobody listening to it?

Been streamed over 1 billion times  

[Thor]

7 minutes ago, QueenBeyoncé said:

Been streamed over 1 billion times  

And given its disastrous streams, that's all it's going to get. A big fat FLOP. 

[Dialamba]

Yes when you have 20 tracks it means bigger debut records but not necessarily longevity. When you have only 10-12 tracks it's easy to pick your favorite tracks so the replay value increases however it's not only due to the numbers of tracks but the length, it only takes 30 minutes to listen a full album. I don't think it's a new trend it's just attention span is getting shorter. 

[QueenBeyoncé]

 

1 minute ago, Thor said:

And given its disastrous streams, that's all it's going to get. A big fat FLOP. 

reach a billion faster than your faves last 3 albums 

[Pheromosa]

Well, a bad short album is better than a bad long album. So there's that. 

Cowboy Carter is excellent though..and so is Eternal Sunshine 

[slw84]

Didn't one of Bruno's albums have 10 tracks last decade.

 

less is more sometimes.

[simplywohoo]

Ariana????

[Batsy Armada]

Currently, I'm in the middle of listening to an album that's one hour and 37 minutes long and I couldn't imagine it being any shorter for how much I'm loving it. As long as the music is good, and doesn't become redundant or repetitive, a longer runtime is more than justified.

 

I really don't understand what's so celebratory about short albums, within this context, as someone who legitimately loves music. At that point, I just begin to wonder if that artist is even interesting enough to keep me enraptured for more than 38 minutes. Now I don't always have the time to sit and listen to a long album, but they're most welcome whenever I do. Similarly, I enjoy listening to an album that's short and sweet as well. But it's not the same as saying that an album should be short, otherwise it's not very good. That just brings it back full circle to the beginning of this paragraph.