Best *CD* double albums?

[Jinsai]

Unwound- Leaves Turn Inside You

yep (ten characters)

Even The Beatles' White Album's disc two is full of dross.

NO

[neorev]

No mention of System of a down Mezmerize/hypnotize? Granted it's as bloated as any of the CDs mentioned above. But the freakin' CDs slid in to each other! I remember buying the 1st half and waiting the 6 months for the second half to come out so I could connect the two.

Pink Floyd's Pulse with the blinking LED was a pretty cool double album as well.

You know, I was gonna mention the System Of A Down albums... but they weren't released together so I didn't know if they counted or not
But I did like how the art connected together to form a double CD. Soldier Side Intro opens disc 1 and close out with Soldier Side on the 2nd disc. Love the way it all comes together and if you start it all over again... it plays almost seemless from the end of Soldier Side back into Soldier Side Intro.

And there's a couple of releases that come with an extra disc... but it's more like bonus tracks rather than a double album.
Like the Siriusmo double disc version of "Mosaik" that comes with an extra 7 tracks on the 2nd disc that are awesome...

or Two Fingers' "Stunt Rhythms" comes with a 2nd disc with 8 more tracks.

But do they count as actual double albums? I guess it depends.

[neorev]

Drukqs, Mellon Collie, The Fragile: all full of filler, all would have benefitted from being cut down to one disc.
In fact I can't think of a single double album that isn't too long. Even The Beatles' White Album's disc two is full of dross.

*heresy, runs for cover*

I agree Drukqs and The Fragile have quite a bit of filler... but I quite enjoy Mellon Collie straight through.
But with the Aeroplane Flies High collection of extra tracks from that era... hell Mellon Collie could have been an amazing triple or quadruple album... would that be the first in history? A 3 or 4 disc album?

Oh, and isn't The Knife "Shaking The Habitual" a double album?
Though I didn't really like that one at all :P

[eversonpoe]

Oh, and isn't The Knife "Shaking The Habitual" a double album?
Though I didn't really like that one at all :P

it is, and it was already mentioned...i think you're also the first person i've seen on this board who didn't like it. any particular reason?

[neorev]

it is, and it was already mentioned...i think you're also the first person i've seen on this board who didn't like it. any particular reason?

I know it's loved by many on here... I wouldn't call it a terrible album or anything like that. I just couldn't get into the vibe of it. I found myself getting bored and felt tracks dragged on. You're gonna have 8-10 minute plus tracks, I wanna feel them develop and expand and grown into something. I felt there was no peaks or troughs. And I guess I'm just used to their fun and upbeatness, it just wasn't what I was expecting. I enjoyed their other albums and I'm all for a band going down a different route, doing a 180, and trying something new. Kinda like what Portishead did with their album "Third." "Shaking The Habitual" has some interesting arrangements and production... it just didn't grip me. Who knows, maybe down the line after more listens or in the right setting I might connect with it. But for now, it sadly left me feeling cold. "Wrap Your Arms Around Me" is my fave. Could do without the 19 minute droney track, which is a little bit self-indulgent and that Fracking track. There's definitely some fillers on here, felt the album could have been more focused cutting out the excess noise and drone stuff that don't really go anywhere or add anything to overall album.

For weird female vocal-led experimental electronic music, I'm more into stuff like iamamiwhoami.

[Kid Charlemagne]

Some stuff has been mentioned already, one I haven't seen is Okkervil River's The Stage Names/Stand Ins.

For me, they've been one of the better American bands of the past decade and on this portion of their catalog, Will Sheff's songwriting got better and darker, the musicianship is wonderful, and it's emotional as fuck. One track that stand out is "John Allyn Smith Sails", it's so over the top and melodramatic that it's wonderful and hilarious.

[Space Suicide]

Pink Floyd's The Wall

Probably a very stereotypical, cliche choice but the story and seamless transition to each song was well done and the album is completely devoid of nonsense filler, even the lesser known tracks and meh songs add to the overall story and experience.

[allegro]

Since people are already breaking the rules and including the vinyl era, I'll include mine:

My #1 winner is: The Who: Quadrophenia

No filler at all, the entire album is great from start to finish, I never skip one song.

But from the modern era, I'd echo the vote for Speakerboxxx / The Love Below

[Presideo]

it is, and it was already mentioned...i think you're also the first person i've seen on this board who didn't like it. any particular reason?

Who wouldn't like an album that has a track featuring a guitar being tuned for five minutes?


I'm a 90's kid so the usual suspects like Mellon Collie, The Fragile, LCD Soundsystem, and Embryonic are the only great double-albums that come to mind. Also, Radiohead's In Rainbows isn't billed as a double album, but that bonus disc kicks ass!

[hobochic]

Not a double album but a set of themed sequels: Coil - Musick to play in the dark Volume 1 & 2.

Note, the photo is taken by Rico Tijsen: http://flickriver.com/photos/ricotijsen/2558319426/

[ambergris]

NO

I'd like to disagree.... the second half of the first cd/LP is rather boring. The obligatory Ringo Starr song, Why don't we do it in the road?, George Harrison's worst Beatles song Piggies and many ballads. I always skip it. And there's Yer Blues, Wild Honey Pie and Revolution 9, which was a possible road that the history of music didn't take (and which the Beatles already did better with A Day in the Life).

[jmtd]

The vinyl rule is because otherwise it's too easy. There are loads of double vinyl albums. TDS, the cure's kiss me...

[allegro]

TDS

Wait, that was a double vinyl album?

[jmtd]

Wait, that was a double vinyl album?

Yup. At least mine is (a re release copy). However http://www.nincollector.com/archive/..._08/halo08.htm suggests the original was too.

[frankie teardrop]

there's no way a 65 min. album could fit on one LP. most certainly is a double.

[Jinsai]

a regular rpm 12" record holds a little more than 20 minutes per side.

Also, I don't agree at all with you guys about The White Album. I didn't know that people disliked Why Don't We Do It in the Road or Yer Blues, and Revolution #9 is awesome. I also never understood the hatred for Wild Honey Pie. It's a minute long!

[allegro]

Also, I don't agree at all with you guys about The White Album. I didn't know that people disliked Why Don't We Do It in the Road or Yer Blues, and Revolution #9 is awesome. I also never understood the hatred for Wild Honey Pie. It's a minute long!

Back (pre-CD) when I converted my White Album to cassette, I left off a few songs on my cassette version: While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Birthday, Revolution 9, and Goodnight. So when I'd hear the vinyl version I'd be, like, wait a second ...

I guess because TDS was released in the CD era, it isn't considered a double album, right?

Quadrophenia was 81:36
Songs in the Key of Life was 85:21
The White Album was 93:35
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway was 94:22

Per Wikipedia, an LP: typically 15–25 minutes per side (30 minutes per side for classical & spoken word), although 45 minutes is possible with tight groove spacing and no spacing between tracks

[Jinsai]

the thing about the white album, at least for me, is how the weirder songs mesh and contribute. There's some parts of the album I'm not personally thrilled with (The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill makes me feel a little crazy) but they serve a purpose.

[Twiggy]

I consider everything post Californication to be complete rubbish by the RHCP. It's cringworthy these days watching them. Sorry just my opinion.

The Fragile/Mellon Collie are amazing albums. Not sure you can top them.

Another one for me is: George Harrison - All Things Must Pass

I think it was a triple vinly release initially but its a solid album. Just shows how great he was.

Stadium Arcadium would have been a fucking stellar album if they trimmed the fat down from 28 to 12 or 14 songs.

[Iran_Ed]

Most of what I was think has already been said. Swans, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Aphex Twin and Set Fire To Flames. May I add Have A Nice Life and Miles Davis' 70's output.

[xmd 5a]

Have A Nice Life

Totally forgot that Deathconciousness is a double album. Hell yes!

[seasonsinthesky]

bunch of repeats:
The Fragile
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Grace for Drowning
Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven

unmentioned so far:
Ulver - Themes From William Blake's 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'
Moonspell - Alpha Noir/Omega White
Dream Theater - Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
The Gathering - How to Measure a Planet
Soilwork - The Living Infinite
Ulrich Schnauss - Far Away Trains Passing By
Sigur Rós - Hvarf/Heim (technically a double EP, i guess)

companion albums released separately or otherwise weirdly sorta-doubles:
Radiohead - Kid A/Amnesiac
maudlin of the Well - Bath/Leaving Your Body Map
Opeth - Deliverance/Damnation
Boris - Heavy Rocks/Attention Please
Devin Townsend Project - Deconstruction/Ghost
Porcupine Tree - The Sky Moves Sideways (took 2 discs to include all the material when re-released)

aaaand special mentions for the "play both discs at once!" thing:
Boris - Dronevil
Rosetta - The Galilean Satellites

in regards to Mellon Collie and The Fragile — i find these two actually have very little bloat at all. even with the extended vinyl tracklist, i find The Fraggle compelling all the way through except for "Underneath It All" (and, to a lesser degree, "Pilgrimage"); and there are only a couple of Mellon Collie songs i'd drop (from the end of disc 2), but i'd rather replace them with songs from Aeroplane than drop the total song count. my point being: resounding successes!

[Jinsai]

typically 15–25 minutes per side (30 minutes per side for classical & spoken word), although 45 minutes is possible with tight groove spacing and no spacing between tracks

Yeah, but once you go over 20 to 22 minutes a side, you start really sacrificing audio quality.


Stars of the Lid - And their Refinement of the Decline
Stars of the Lid - The Tired Sounds of...
The Beatles - White Album
2Pac - All Eyez on Me
Future Sound of London - Lifeforms
Swans - Soundtracks for the Blind
Tom Waits - Orphans
The Orb - The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Abbatoir Blues / Lyre of Orpheus
Frank Zappa - Joe's Garage
The Knife - Shaking the Habitual
Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
Pink Floyd - The Wall
Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile
Minilogue - Blomma
New Order - Substance (if you consider it an "album")
Aphex Twin - Drukqs
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works vol 2
LTJ Bukem - Journey Inwards
Meat Beat Manifesto - Subliminal Sandwich
Prince - Sign O the Times
Olivia Tremor Control - Dusk at Cubist Castle
Unwound - Leaves Turn Inside You
Autechre - Exai
Autechre - Tri Repetae
Wu Tang - Wu Tang Forever
Wilco - Being There
The Clash - Sandinista
Mu Ziq - Bluff Limbo
UGK (underground kingz) - self titled
The Ex - Joggers and Smoggers
Boris - Dronevil
Kate Bush - Aerial
Nas - Street's Disciple
George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
Cabaret Voltaire - The Conversation
Outkast - Speakerboxx/Love Below
Einsturzende Neubauten - Silence is Sexy
Godspeed You Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti
The Notorious B.I.G. - Life After Death
Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Throwing Muses - In the Doghouse
The Who - Quadrophenia
Rufus Wainright - Want One/Two
E-40 - Element of Surprise
Joanna Newsom - Have One on Me
Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life
Zomby - With Love

[perceptionnexus]

My favorite double album of the 2000's was Eels Blinking Lights and Other Revelations

[allegro]

Yeah, but once you go over 20 to 22 minutes a side, you start really sacrificing audio quality

But The Beatles (aka White Album) was 93:95

[katara]

The Fragile: full of filler, would have benefitted from being cut down to one disc.

Really struggling to think of even one song I'd cut from the album. I know there's a lot of hate for Starfuckers, Inc, but I personally think it's great.

[Camille]

Prince - Sign 'o the Times

Absolutely.

[eversonpoe]

aaaand special mentions for the "play both discs at once!" thing:
...
Rosetta - The Galilean Satellites

totally forgot to mention this one...i really need to borrow someone's DJ setup so i can do it with the vinyl. i freakin' love rosetta.

[Jinsai]

But The Beatles (aka White Album) was 93:95

Yeah... which is why it really should have been a triple vinyl, but that was unheard of for a commercial rock release at the time. The white album was already "pushing it," even for a band as big as The Beatles. I've read some articles which suggest that you should never exceed twenty minutes a side. This constraint is the reason why the traditional album length hovered somewhere below 40 minutes. Today, people seem to consider that to be relatively short.

I'm surprised that the recent repressing of the white album on vinyl didn't come as a 3 LP set. Maybe people would have considered that some kind of blasphemy to mess with the break points?

[allegro]

Maybe people would have considered that some kind of blasphemy to mess with the break points?

Yeah you're probably right about that, at least these days.

When I was in high school, cassettes didn't exist so the highly coveted piece of audio equipment was ...

THE REEL-TO-REEL!! My best friend's mom had one. You could put several albums on there, and we felt like recording studio engineers firing that thing up. And no chance of screwing up the vinyl. It was perfect for double albums because you didn't have to get up off your ass.

http://www.friktech.com/btls/tapes/rtr.htm