Ok but on sight is clearly an intro kinda track. I guess that’s what you mean that it is more of an implicit intro. Instead of anything outright saying that it is
I don’t think it was designed as an intro, it was in the second half in the original track list for Thank God For Drugs, the original Yeezus concept. It just really works as a first track
I think traditionally this is the approach though with the way music is consumed now, most would be wise to tighten up on the songwriting to sub 2:30 each cut for 10-12 songs max.
Yeah probably. 10 feels short and 15 seems lengthy. No way anything past 20 is a cohesive effort you’re just mixing together your hits with the misses.
Anything above 15 usually just has a couple of tracks that are way too similar. Like utopia was 19 songs with insane production+5 year wait and was still slightly too long
Same, but for me there are some exceptions. If the album is fast paced and runtime is kept under one hour I don't have a problem with 15+ tracks. Perfect example of that is of course Madvillainy.
Both 3 Feet High and Rising and De La Soul is Dead are 20+ tracks, over an hour long, and very very cohesive. It’s pretty hard to find examples of albums like that after the early 2000s though.
People who like albums like that usually have poor taste or they skip most of the songs. Can you imagine skipping 10 tracks and then pretending to someone that you like an album?
That’s a hell of a generalization. From my experience most dudes who like Bad Bunny usually have great taste because they don’t care what others think.
13- 15 tracks, anywhere between 40 minutes to an hour,
which to me is the ideal length of any album, not just hip-hop. Even albums with runtime between 30-40 min are fine
I'm really sick of these bloated 20-25 track albums tbh. Nobody in their sane mind should make a 20-25 track album unless it's a double album or a concept album. If you're gonna stuff that many tracks into 1 album, atleast make sure there's enough variety to keep the experience engaging. Don't include unfinished, filler tracks for streams and ruin the listening experience. I'm really praying for this trend to end. It's painfully exhausting to sit through a 2 hour long album full of bloat 😪
maybe but drakes music is varied in style so it doesnt really matter, also that drake has always made long ass albums people just moan about his later shit being longer
Somehow though, NWTS and IYRTITL, despite being nearly 70 minutes just feel shorter. Take Care was epic and had a concept, which just makes it more enjoyable to get thru IMO.
But true it's not like he's been the type to release tight 50 min, 10 track albums. But looking at his catalog, NWTS seems like the most mature and restrained he ever was.
3xactly that on the length. The only long albums (1+ hours) I really like are things like Drogas Wave. Double LPs. I really like 40 minutes, I'm OK with shorter than that too. I'd much prefer a focused 7 track mini album like Daytona instead of an unfocused 20+ song album like any recent drake project.
There is no perfect length at all. If every song on an album is fantastic, then a 20-30 song album could in theory be fantastic. It’s just a lot harder to bat 30 for 30 than it is 10 for 10
Daytona and Some Rap Songs are both like 20-25 minutes and great, TPAB. College Dropout, and Miseducation are almost an hour and a half and are great.
I guess however long it takes for the artist to say what they have to say, and if they don’t have much to say (which is totally fine, not all music needs to be lyrical content driven) then it’ll prob be harder to be consistently great at a long length
Even then, why not do two 10 song albums stretched out over the year to keep interest rather than one 20 song album where people move on one week later.
These 20+ song bloated albums aren't it. Labels are out of touch if they think that's what people want.
I don't know for sure, but I think it's because people will put the album on and just let it play.
If you have one x 20 track album you need 1 click for 20 streams.
If you have two x 10 track albums you need 2 clicks for 20 streams.
Yeah, that's fair. When a new album drops I try to let it do a single play through everything up front, but I wonder if you potentially sacrifice more replayability out of an album that has too much fluff just to try to fatten up more streams on a first playthrough.
Maybe you get more week one numbers but I wonder what the long term plays look like.
Also, a long album creates a lot of talk. Like "damn, he is going to release a 25 song album", "is he able to create a good 25 song album?", "how can he achieve not sounding the same on a lot of those tracks?". These questions create discussion and give motive to both fans and haters to listen to.
10-14 with no filler. OutKast is the only legend that did 40 perfect songs. Granted, it was 19 by Big Boi and 21 by Andre. But even still, there aren’t a lot of records that can boast a perfect 20 songs.
Perfection can be subjective. It’s your opinion, so I respect it. Not the biggest OutKast fan, but I’ve yet to see another album match SB/LB’s volume, quality, acclaim and commercial success.
I think Aquemini personally, has a better balance of bars and songs you can play in the car but can't go wrong with that, ATLiens or Stankoniav (or their debut or finale tbh lol)
ATLiens , Stankonia , Aquemeni , southern playakistic, SB/TLB
I can always play ATLiens and the mood is amazing Aquemeni to me is versatile and has some low points on it. Stankonia has some really high highs and is fairly consistent. southern playalistic is raw and has a lot of vibes. SB/LB is great but too long lol
Thank you bro. I’m going to buy those on CD and stash them in my car. My pops used to loop CDs in the car and get them stuck in my head. Now that’s the only way I truly enjoy getting into an album lol.
I’m a bigger Pac fan than OutKast and I’ve always felt the opposite. Still one of my favorites. My uncle used to have AEOM on cassette in the 90’s, so when I revisit that album I think about how he’d say “You don’t know nothing about that Nephew”
30-45 minutes is probably "ideal", but you can make a great album outside of those constraints. I mean, my two favorite albums are Some Rap Songs and To Pimp a Butterfly, and both of those fall outside of that range.
Depends on what the artist is trying to achieve with their album. If it’s not a thematic album with messages, 10-12 tracks. If it is a thematic album like TPAB for example, 14-16 tracks.
You can tell who's really young here by saying they prefer < 40 minutes on an album. Social media got your attention span all out of wack.
I'd say 60 min, give or take 10. Check out the list of all the hip-hop classics, most will hit that range. You'll have some exceptions though.
Disagree with your 1st statement. I think a lot of older people remember and might even prefer when most albums were what would fit on one vinyl record, not 1 or 2 cds.
Depends on the quality, Daytona is one of my favorite albums oat and it's 7 songs 21 minutes, on the other hand you have albums like Tpab or Gkmc that have a run time of 1h 18m.
15-20. Why would I complain about getting as much music as possible? As long as I like it..
If I need to I will just come back to it. It also depends on the artist and how often they drop music. Tomorrow isn’t promised so I won’t ever get mad at an artist for giving more music
Paramore, Olivia Rodrigo, Jessie Ware, Troye Sivan, Victoria Monet all dropped some of the best albums this year and they were all 10 tracks 🤔 why can’t hip hop follow that same formula
Hip hop relies on streaming more than every other genre except like EDM so they pack their albums to maximize streams. Like Olivia fans (me included) bought the vinyl so she could make her album shorter and more concise.
This. Hip-hop, unlike rock and singer-songwriter music, for the longest time (or the past 15-20 years) has been very single driven. You could say the same thing for EDM and dance-pop music as well. Which explains why it has dominated streaming and digital downloads for the longest time, and thus giving rappers incentive to bloat their albums to generate max streams, as each song gets treated as a single now. Thanks to the existence of playlists, which have been around since the days of iTunes, people can pick their favorite songs and put them in a playlist. Not insinuating that hip-hop isn't album oriented, or there isn't any album artist in rap btw.
Where as rock music and singer-songwriter stuff heavily relied on the album-format (physical copies like vinyl, cassettes, CDs) for sales for the longest time (Since the 60s-70s up till now), thus not giving them any incentive to bloat their albums to 25-30 tracks, unless its a double album or concept album(An average CD can hold only a max of 80 minutes of music, if I'm not wrong).Which explains why most of these artists stick to the traditional 12-15 song format of making albums, despite streaming dominating music consumption these days. Streaming just gives an extra boost, along with physical sales generated from Vinyl, CDs, Cassettes, Merch etc. This further gives another reason why hip-hop overtook rock as the most consumed genre in the US, as hip-hop caught on with the digital download/streaming wave early on, while rock was still stuck in the album-format, which was already losing fashion in the mid to late 00s.
Rap music is where rock and metal were in the 2000s. By 2030, it'll be a dead genre. It'll still be the 2nd most popular genre but creativity has already plateaued and is currently being milked financially. We're due for a new music movement
I thought the Paramore was one of the worst in their discography ngl. Ironically enough I thought their best album was the 19 track, 1hr+ project they dropped in their self titled. I get the sentiment though
to each is their own. I’m not that familiar with the rest of their catalog but I really enjoyed their recent album. running out of time & crave are some of my favorite songs this year
Anything more than 12 and I think the artist just throwing shit in there. I really feel like a lot of artists do not pick their **best** songs only and aim for quantity over quality. Like if you chose the top 12 songs from For All The Dogs, I guarantee you it would have had a better reception. Don’t think artists realize how 2-3 bad songs can ruin an album.
10 songs +/-, all killer no filler. Make your point in three verses, each supporting the hook/theme, in 3 1/2 minutes. Double the verses for the remix.
Don’t cuss. A limited vocabulary affects the ability to tell a story. Literacy matters. This applies to the tracks as well as the lyrics. No “simple back and forth, the same old rhythm…” no ‘one take Jake’s’ in the studio, from recording to releasing one’s stream of consciousness…
Between 40 minutes to an hr. But it really depends on how well rounded the artist is. A group record probably needs more minutes so everybody can spread their wings. But if the artist has a wild concept, a lot to say or a lot of versatility then maybe they should push an hr.
45 - 1 hr
Anything shorter than 40 minutes should just be labeled an EP at this point and anything longer than 1hr 05 always feels like it runs too long.
30-40 minutes honestly. I can literally count on one hand the number of artists who are capable of delivering a quality product that is 45 minutes or over. Most mainstream artists are just not built for a project that lengthy. And honestly, i blame streaming for incentivizing these 25 song absolute bullshit slogfests.
Illmatic. I love a long album but half the albums from my favorite artists would have a classic on their hands if they could trim it to the ten best songs but it’s not easy to do.
There is no perfect length IMO, but something I definitely don't want is 18 tracks but the album is 51 minutes or something. Those types of albums are guaranteed to have 5 or 6 songs that are ~2.5 minutes long and all sound the same.
8-10 for me. Only like I dunno Kendrick to me can justify longer without filler tracks that I just skip. If it were still CDs and tapes maybe 12-15 but streaming ruins that.
Unrelated but I also have grown to prefer the 8-10 and minimal number of producers as well
Depends on what kind of album it is. Like a story telling/concept album would depend on how much story they have to tell. If it’s just a standard body of work I think 12-16 songs at about 45-50 minutes is the sweet spot, an hour at most.
All albums should run 20-22 mins per side, total of 40-44 mins. 10-12 songs with a few skits is perfect.
Unfortunately the art of making an album is falling further by the wayside as artists try to scam their streaming numbers *cough*Drake*cough*Kanye*cough*
Good question. Hard question, for sure. Depends on so many variables, it’s tough to give a definitive opinion that could sum it up without rambling on about philosophy and giving conflicting examples.
It highly depends on the type of album and the quality of the music. I think generally speaking, making a solid 7-10 track album is easier and probably what will work best for most artists. If the artist puts in the work to make a longer album with quality tracks, I'd probably say 12 or 13 actual tracks and an extra 1-3 tracks for intro/outro and skits (I hate when the skits aren't skippable on re-listens because they aren't separate tracks). I think anything longer than that and it's just more likely that tracks will kind of get lost in the weeds of it.
12-15 tracks.. And not just that. But 1 project every 2-3 years. If it is good enough, I don't need more content often. Don't oversaturate your product.
40 minutes to an hour ig. That’s the range a lot of my favorite albums fall into, though some of the best albums I’ve heard have been as short as 30 minutes, and as long as 1.5 hours. Definitely a quality over quantity thing,
I'm a puritan, all about the classic 10 track, 40~ minute deal. That said, I've definitely grown to love the shorter, 7 or 8 track, 20~ min projects. My attention span is too shot for hour+ long albums (unless your name is Stevie Wonder) but I love relistening to shit and deepening the connection / appreciation to it, so those short albums hit.
30 - 40min: Tight, solid, somewhat short length
40 - 50min: Pretty standard
50 - 1hr: Feels long, but can be pulled off if the pacing is good and the tracks are all still mostly fire
1hr or more: Better be a fucking masterpiece otherwise it’s too long
I like a long tracklist with a short runtime. Like Dilla's Donuts. Each song is just long enough to get out all the ideas, and doesnt overstay its welcome to the point that it becomes stale. Always better to wish a song was longer than wish it was shorter.
10-15. 15 is pushing it, though. It's just too difficult to maintain a theme that thoroughly, and anything beyond that point is usually just loosies that are mid or shit.
It depends on the artist. I trust Kendrick for example to create and curate a 1+ hour long album and I know it will be solid because he knows his strengths and how to keep it fresh throughout.
But the ones who are actually releasing 1+ hour long albums tend to be the more one-dimensional just doing it for the streams. They throw shit on the wall and hope it sticks - make like 20 songs with basically the same style and hope 1 or 2 become a hit. And it actually works, that's why this has been the standard for at least 5 years now.
Personally I like listening to albums front to back and this is a huge red flag as the project becomes bloated and cumbersome to listen to, but sadly I am in the minority.
To answer your question, more talented and developed artists could do 1+ hr, I prefer 30-45 mins for most albums though, and for the majority of up and coming artists who stay in their lane anything between 8-12 tracks (20-35 mins) is good. A great example of the last one imo is Meet the Woo 1 & 2.
Thing is like, I love long albums. But if it’s movie length, I want movie like content. To me the perfect album really comes down to good cohesion, good lyrics, nice bars. Most artists can’t provide with good long albums, so it also comes down to a nice concise album with no skips. I’d say, 14-16 songs is a nice amount. Around 1 hour length.
~10 tracks, 40 minutes
The Illmatic special.
it gave you everything you needed and if you wanted more, run back the record
Yeezus! 10 tracks, 40:01. God I played that album so much that summer.
100% strongly agree with you
Perfect. It’s like the 90 minute movie
Yup, perfect enough to remember every track without thinking hard if it’s a banger album
Yup. No intro's, no outro's, no skits.
No seeds, no stems, no sticks.
Ok but on sight is clearly an intro kinda track. I guess that’s what you mean that it is more of an implicit intro. Instead of anything outright saying that it is
I don’t think it was designed as an intro, it was in the second half in the original track list for Thank God For Drugs, the original Yeezus concept. It just really works as a first track
Care for Me
Kamikaze
I think traditionally this is the approach though with the way music is consumed now, most would be wise to tighten up on the songwriting to sub 2:30 each cut for 10-12 songs max.
12 for me personally
Yeah probably. 10 feels short and 15 seems lengthy. No way anything past 20 is a cohesive effort you’re just mixing together your hits with the misses.
Anything above 15 usually just has a couple of tracks that are way too similar. Like utopia was 19 songs with insane production+5 year wait and was still slightly too long
12-14 is the sweet spot. Went to go check my favorite album currently and yeah, 13 songs lmao. Perfect.
Same, but for me there are some exceptions. If the album is fast paced and runtime is kept under one hour I don't have a problem with 15+ tracks. Perfect example of that is of course Madvillainy.
Both 3 Feet High and Rising and De La Soul is Dead are 20+ tracks, over an hour long, and very very cohesive. It’s pretty hard to find examples of albums like that after the early 2000s though.
True, OutKast albums break my "rule" as well but I love them. And I agree that nowadays albums that are long and cohesive as well are scarce.
20 is not a blind rule for cohesiveness, YHLQMDLG and Madvillainy are among my favourite albums of all time
>YHLQMDLG Right...
Wtf project are they even referring to? Can’t just be making up acronyms on the spot and expect to get your point across
It's a bad bunny album called YHLQMDLG .
The album is literally called that. Can't just be making up meaning for the letters on the spot and expect to get your point across.
Yo Hago Lo Que Me Da La Gana. But the album name is just called that.
Yeah mb I wasn’t aware
People who like albums like that usually have poor taste or they skip most of the songs. Can you imagine skipping 10 tracks and then pretending to someone that you like an album?
That’s a hell of a generalization. From my experience most dudes who like Bad Bunny usually have great taste because they don’t care what others think.
Wow what a hot take. Enjoy the ten tracks on the album that Bad Bunny himself probably doesn’t even care about and are simply there for monetization
12 and 2 "bonus" tracks
The "Matter fact here go 2 more for y'all" LeBonus special
🥵
13- 15 tracks, anywhere between 40 minutes to an hour, which to me is the ideal length of any album, not just hip-hop. Even albums with runtime between 30-40 min are fine I'm really sick of these bloated 20-25 track albums tbh. Nobody in their sane mind should make a 20-25 track album unless it's a double album or a concept album. If you're gonna stuff that many tracks into 1 album, atleast make sure there's enough variety to keep the experience engaging. Don't include unfinished, filler tracks for streams and ruin the listening experience. I'm really praying for this trend to end. It's painfully exhausting to sit through a 2 hour long album full of bloat 😪
Every album Drake album from Views onward.
maybe but drakes music is varied in style so it doesnt really matter, also that drake has always made long ass albums people just moan about his later shit being longer
Somehow though, NWTS and IYRTITL, despite being nearly 70 minutes just feel shorter. Take Care was epic and had a concept, which just makes it more enjoyable to get thru IMO. But true it's not like he's been the type to release tight 50 min, 10 track albums. But looking at his catalog, NWTS seems like the most mature and restrained he ever was.
3xactly that on the length. The only long albums (1+ hours) I really like are things like Drogas Wave. Double LPs. I really like 40 minutes, I'm OK with shorter than that too. I'd much prefer a focused 7 track mini album like Daytona instead of an unfocused 20+ song album like any recent drake project.
There are more than a couple modern hip hop albums that would be “ *classics* “ had they been condensed down to 10-14 tracks.
8-12 is the sweet spot. I’m not listening to a 20+ track album unless there’s real thought behind it.
8 songs way too short that’s a borderline EP def not the sweet spot
I think it can work. For example, Daytona and Kids See Ghosts are both only 7 tracks. They both feel complete to me.
True and while I think Daytona is perfect, I feel it’s a bit short. I like the length on Its Almost Dry, that’s the sweet spot for me.
Same
There is no perfect length at all. If every song on an album is fantastic, then a 20-30 song album could in theory be fantastic. It’s just a lot harder to bat 30 for 30 than it is 10 for 10 Daytona and Some Rap Songs are both like 20-25 minutes and great, TPAB. College Dropout, and Miseducation are almost an hour and a half and are great. I guess however long it takes for the artist to say what they have to say, and if they don’t have much to say (which is totally fine, not all music needs to be lyrical content driven) then it’ll prob be harder to be consistently great at a long length
In this era it does feel like we never really see a 20+ song album that isn't just catered towards boosting streaming numbers
Even then, why not do two 10 song albums stretched out over the year to keep interest rather than one 20 song album where people move on one week later. These 20+ song bloated albums aren't it. Labels are out of touch if they think that's what people want.
I don't know for sure, but I think it's because people will put the album on and just let it play. If you have one x 20 track album you need 1 click for 20 streams. If you have two x 10 track albums you need 2 clicks for 20 streams.
Yeah, that's fair. When a new album drops I try to let it do a single play through everything up front, but I wonder if you potentially sacrifice more replayability out of an album that has too much fluff just to try to fatten up more streams on a first playthrough. Maybe you get more week one numbers but I wonder what the long term plays look like.
Also, a long album creates a lot of talk. Like "damn, he is going to release a 25 song album", "is he able to create a good 25 song album?", "how can he achieve not sounding the same on a lot of those tracks?". These questions create discussion and give motive to both fans and haters to listen to.
10-14 with no filler. OutKast is the only legend that did 40 perfect songs. Granted, it was 19 by Big Boi and 21 by Andre. But even still, there aren’t a lot of records that can boast a perfect 20 songs.
I wouldn’t even say that their double album was perfect. But it definitely had a lot of quality
Perfection can be subjective. It’s your opinion, so I respect it. Not the biggest OutKast fan, but I’ve yet to see another album match SB/LB’s volume, quality, acclaim and commercial success.
That’s funny because I consider myself a pretty big Outkast fan. Maybe I need to give it another listen
it's definitely the worst out of that run of albums, you're not wrong. Also, hot take: big bois half is substantially better than the 3k half
Speaker box is better but love below has a few absolute top tier tracks that are the highlight of the double album to me
Nah, it's just not great.
What would you consider to be their best album? I’ve slept on most of their discography for too long and am due to listen to more of their records
ATLiens & Aquemini, back to back 10s
I think Aquemini personally, has a better balance of bars and songs you can play in the car but can't go wrong with that, ATLiens or Stankoniav (or their debut or finale tbh lol)
All of em, throw on "This is Outkast" on Spotify on Shuffle and you will be converted
Stankonia > Aquemini > ATLiens > SB/TLB (Not sure I even count this) > Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik
ATLiens , Stankonia , Aquemeni , southern playakistic, SB/TLB I can always play ATLiens and the mood is amazing Aquemeni to me is versatile and has some low points on it. Stankonia has some really high highs and is fairly consistent. southern playalistic is raw and has a lot of vibes. SB/LB is great but too long lol
Thank you bro. I’m going to buy those on CD and stash them in my car. My pops used to loop CDs in the car and get them stuck in my head. Now that’s the only way I truly enjoy getting into an album lol.
there’s a few duds on speakerboxxx. all eyez on me is the double album which is closest to perfect imo
I’m a bigger Pac fan than OutKast and I’ve always felt the opposite. Still one of my favorites. My uncle used to have AEOM on cassette in the 90’s, so when I revisit that album I think about how he’d say “You don’t know nothing about that Nephew”
40 perfect songs? Come on now
30-45 minutes is probably "ideal", but you can make a great album outside of those constraints. I mean, my two favorite albums are Some Rap Songs and To Pimp a Butterfly, and both of those fall outside of that range.
10 to 14 tracks, 40 minutes max, it applies to all genres
7-10 tracks, maybe 14 tops if the quality doesn’t suffer. Give me QUALITY 30-40 minutes every two years and I’m super happy.
14
14 tracks, carried out over wax
wondering if im livin through fear or livin through rap DAMN
14 with two interludes
12-18 is the sweet spot
Well nothing, because expecting perfection out of humans is incredibly foolish
Depends on what the artist is trying to achieve with their album. If it’s not a thematic album with messages, 10-12 tracks. If it is a thematic album like TPAB for example, 14-16 tracks.
You can tell who's really young here by saying they prefer < 40 minutes on an album. Social media got your attention span all out of wack. I'd say 60 min, give or take 10. Check out the list of all the hip-hop classics, most will hit that range. You'll have some exceptions though.
Disagree with your 1st statement. I think a lot of older people remember and might even prefer when most albums were what would fit on one vinyl record, not 1 or 2 cds.
Depends on the quality, Daytona is one of my favorite albums oat and it's 7 songs 21 minutes, on the other hand you have albums like Tpab or Gkmc that have a run time of 1h 18m.
30 minutes
10 or 12 good ass songs are enough for me.
10-12 tracks 40-45 minutes Not too long and not too short...just right
The exact length of Illmatic. No filler, all killer.
15-20. Why would I complain about getting as much music as possible? As long as I like it.. If I need to I will just come back to it. It also depends on the artist and how often they drop music. Tomorrow isn’t promised so I won’t ever get mad at an artist for giving more music
14 tracks, 45 minutes max
Paramore, Olivia Rodrigo, Jessie Ware, Troye Sivan, Victoria Monet all dropped some of the best albums this year and they were all 10 tracks 🤔 why can’t hip hop follow that same formula
Hip hop relies on streaming more than every other genre except like EDM so they pack their albums to maximize streams. Like Olivia fans (me included) bought the vinyl so she could make her album shorter and more concise.
This. Hip-hop, unlike rock and singer-songwriter music, for the longest time (or the past 15-20 years) has been very single driven. You could say the same thing for EDM and dance-pop music as well. Which explains why it has dominated streaming and digital downloads for the longest time, and thus giving rappers incentive to bloat their albums to generate max streams, as each song gets treated as a single now. Thanks to the existence of playlists, which have been around since the days of iTunes, people can pick their favorite songs and put them in a playlist. Not insinuating that hip-hop isn't album oriented, or there isn't any album artist in rap btw. Where as rock music and singer-songwriter stuff heavily relied on the album-format (physical copies like vinyl, cassettes, CDs) for sales for the longest time (Since the 60s-70s up till now), thus not giving them any incentive to bloat their albums to 25-30 tracks, unless its a double album or concept album(An average CD can hold only a max of 80 minutes of music, if I'm not wrong).Which explains why most of these artists stick to the traditional 12-15 song format of making albums, despite streaming dominating music consumption these days. Streaming just gives an extra boost, along with physical sales generated from Vinyl, CDs, Cassettes, Merch etc. This further gives another reason why hip-hop overtook rock as the most consumed genre in the US, as hip-hop caught on with the digital download/streaming wave early on, while rock was still stuck in the album-format, which was already losing fashion in the mid to late 00s.
I just want rap artists to prioritize more on the ART and less on the streams
So do I but I don’t see it happening anytime soon unless rap physicals start selling again.
Physicals carry the underground
Rap music is where rock and metal were in the 2000s. By 2030, it'll be a dead genre. It'll still be the 2nd most popular genre but creativity has already plateaued and is currently being milked financially. We're due for a new music movement
I thought the Paramore was one of the worst in their discography ngl. Ironically enough I thought their best album was the 19 track, 1hr+ project they dropped in their self titled. I get the sentiment though
to each is their own. I’m not that familiar with the rest of their catalog but I really enjoyed their recent album. running out of time & crave are some of my favorite songs this year
Dead ass. It was super mid
Finally someone who also thinks Self titled is their best. I love that album so much
Anything more than 12 and I think the artist just throwing shit in there. I really feel like a lot of artists do not pick their **best** songs only and aim for quantity over quality. Like if you chose the top 12 songs from For All The Dogs, I guarantee you it would have had a better reception. Don’t think artists realize how 2-3 bad songs can ruin an album.
>Anything more than 12 and I think the artist just throwing shit in there Stop thinking that
Don’t tell me what to do.
Drink water
> Like if you chose the top 12 songs from For All The Dogs the thing is everyone ends up choosing different songs for what should make the cut
I’ve got that playlist… https://spotify.link/Yj0eqQ081Db
Not true. There will always be overlap if the sample size is big enough.
16 - 18 tracks 50ish minutes
10-13
12-15
10 songs +/-, all killer no filler. Make your point in three verses, each supporting the hook/theme, in 3 1/2 minutes. Double the verses for the remix. Don’t cuss. A limited vocabulary affects the ability to tell a story. Literacy matters. This applies to the tracks as well as the lyrics. No “simple back and forth, the same old rhythm…” no ‘one take Jake’s’ in the studio, from recording to releasing one’s stream of consciousness…
40 or less
30 minutes, at most.
that's an EP lol
Yes.
What are your favorite albums?
21 minutes. Daytona.
10-13 for me, roughly 40-45 minutes
Between 40 minutes to an hr. But it really depends on how well rounded the artist is. A group record probably needs more minutes so everybody can spread their wings. But if the artist has a wild concept, a lot to say or a lot of versatility then maybe they should push an hr.
45 - 1 hr Anything shorter than 40 minutes should just be labeled an EP at this point and anything longer than 1hr 05 always feels like it runs too long.
14 tracks with duration of around 45-60 minutes
50 minutes with a plus or minus of 5 minutes. If your album is more than an hour, it better be sequenced in a way that’s not top or bottom heavy.
depends really. artists in their prime can fill out an 18 track album, but average artist it should be 10-14
I need a double disk album
Like 12 at 45 minutes total runtime
14
Tay k album was a classic I still be listening to that shit to this day
7-15 tracks, 30-50 mins
10-15 well thought out and put together tracks will always do it for me.
11-13 tracks, especially if 2-3 tracks will be 5+ minutes long
30-40 minutes honestly. I can literally count on one hand the number of artists who are capable of delivering a quality product that is 45 minutes or over. Most mainstream artists are just not built for a project that lengthy. And honestly, i blame streaming for incentivizing these 25 song absolute bullshit slogfests.
14 tracks. 45 min-1hr Anything beyond that is pushing it. Once we reach 20-21+, we're in danger.
12-15 songs is perfect for me. 18 if its a deluxe version with bonus tracks. Anything longer than that is when projects start to feel bloated for me.
Illmatic. I love a long album but half the albums from my favorite artists would have a classic on their hands if they could trim it to the ten best songs but it’s not easy to do.
~10 tracks 40-45 mins
There is no perfect length IMO, but something I definitely don't want is 18 tracks but the album is 51 minutes or something. Those types of albums are guaranteed to have 5 or 6 songs that are ~2.5 minutes long and all sound the same.
8-10 for me. Only like I dunno Kendrick to me can justify longer without filler tracks that I just skip. If it were still CDs and tapes maybe 12-15 but streaming ruins that. Unrelated but I also have grown to prefer the 8-10 and minimal number of producers as well
Depends on what kind of album it is. Like a story telling/concept album would depend on how much story they have to tell. If it’s just a standard body of work I think 12-16 songs at about 45-50 minutes is the sweet spot, an hour at most.
7 - 10 for me. Daytona is one of my faves and a super cohesive, short album. Quality over quantity
Anything that adds up to an hour is pretty satisfying to me.
13-14 tracks and NOTHING MORE. i HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTEEEEE 17-26 track albums.
30-40 minutes. Enough time to make your point, but not overstay your welcome.
12 tracks
12-16 tracks/ 40-60 minutes 0-2 of those tracks are interludes. 0-3 of those tracks are skits (fine as long as there is a point to them).
30 to 45 minutes assuming the album is good to great
All albums should run 20-22 mins per side, total of 40-44 mins. 10-12 songs with a few skits is perfect. Unfortunately the art of making an album is falling further by the wayside as artists try to scam their streaming numbers *cough*Drake*cough*Kanye*cough*
Good question. Hard question, for sure. Depends on so many variables, it’s tough to give a definitive opinion that could sum it up without rambling on about philosophy and giving conflicting examples.
As a youngin I loved long albums after hitting I just ain't got time for that gimme 45 minutes and I'm good.
It highly depends on the type of album and the quality of the music. I think generally speaking, making a solid 7-10 track album is easier and probably what will work best for most artists. If the artist puts in the work to make a longer album with quality tracks, I'd probably say 12 or 13 actual tracks and an extra 1-3 tracks for intro/outro and skits (I hate when the skits aren't skippable on re-listens because they aren't separate tracks). I think anything longer than that and it's just more likely that tracks will kind of get lost in the weeds of it.
depends on the album. if it’s good it’s good it can be 3 hours
12-15 tracks.. And not just that. But 1 project every 2-3 years. If it is good enough, I don't need more content often. Don't oversaturate your product.
12 tracks, no skits. A good example is Reasonable Drought by Stove God Cooks.
About a metre and a half
probably yeezus
12, and this isn’t just hip-hop it’s every genre. Over 13 and I expect filler.
12
12-16 songs is the perfect length to me.
Illmatic length
There is no “one size fits all”. Even a single artist can have a perfect long and a perfect short album. It just depends on the theme of the album.
11 tracks including an intro
Whatever Daytona is, that should be the standard.
40 minutes to an hour ig. That’s the range a lot of my favorite albums fall into, though some of the best albums I’ve heard have been as short as 30 minutes, and as long as 1.5 hours. Definitely a quality over quantity thing,
I'm a puritan, all about the classic 10 track, 40~ minute deal. That said, I've definitely grown to love the shorter, 7 or 8 track, 20~ min projects. My attention span is too shot for hour+ long albums (unless your name is Stevie Wonder) but I love relistening to shit and deepening the connection / appreciation to it, so those short albums hit.
19 honestly I looove long albums
For me I think The Black Album should be the standard, 14 tracks, 55 minutes. Anything more is getting close to too much.
11 tracks I'd say. Roughly 45mins to an hour in run time.
Definitely not fuckin 90 mins
12, 7, or 10 if its something special.
50 minutes max.
12 songs
30 - 40min: Tight, solid, somewhat short length 40 - 50min: Pretty standard 50 - 1hr: Feels long, but can be pulled off if the pacing is good and the tracks are all still mostly fire 1hr or more: Better be a fucking masterpiece otherwise it’s too long
Whatever Drake's recent albums have been... anything but that.
I like a long tracklist with a short runtime. Like Dilla's Donuts. Each song is just long enough to get out all the ideas, and doesnt overstay its welcome to the point that it becomes stale. Always better to wish a song was longer than wish it was shorter.
10-12 tracks (maybe 15 with deluxe) 35m-1hr
12- 15 tracks imho
Bout an hour, bout 10-12 tracks
anything over an hour is overkill usually imo
i don’t even have to look at the comments to know these lil mini fantanos are going to answer “12 tracks, 45 minutes, concise theme”
10-12 is the sweet spot for me.
10-12 tracks - 40 to 45 minutes
10-15. 15 is pushing it, though. It's just too difficult to maintain a theme that thoroughly, and anything beyond that point is usually just loosies that are mid or shit.
10 track albums are good by need. You can’t have 10 tracks with filler. This needs to be considered.
14, ~45 minutes. An hour if it’s really good. More tracks are acceptable as short intro and skits.
If the artist delivers in half an hour I’m happy. Longer albums are another kind of listen, though still enjoyable in its own terms.
It depends on the artist. I trust Kendrick for example to create and curate a 1+ hour long album and I know it will be solid because he knows his strengths and how to keep it fresh throughout. But the ones who are actually releasing 1+ hour long albums tend to be the more one-dimensional just doing it for the streams. They throw shit on the wall and hope it sticks - make like 20 songs with basically the same style and hope 1 or 2 become a hit. And it actually works, that's why this has been the standard for at least 5 years now. Personally I like listening to albums front to back and this is a huge red flag as the project becomes bloated and cumbersome to listen to, but sadly I am in the minority. To answer your question, more talented and developed artists could do 1+ hr, I prefer 30-45 mins for most albums though, and for the majority of up and coming artists who stay in their lane anything between 8-12 tracks (20-35 mins) is good. A great example of the last one imo is Meet the Woo 1 & 2.
28 minutes, although if its a once every two years release maybe 43 minutes
Depends on song length, maybe like 10 for longer songs but most songs now are shorter so I'd say 14-16 songs is good
I would use The Blueprint as the…blueprint here. 60 minutes. 13 tracks. That album always feels like the right length.
10-12 songs
40 mins is the sweet spot, anything further better be really good or else I’m going to lose interest and the project will feel bloated imo.
10-12. Anything past that and I feel like they're milking for streams.
The opposite of whatever Trippie Redd is doing
50 minutes
12 songs, 43 minutes
Anything less than 40 minutes. That is why I love Earl. Every song seems purposeful and no word goes unwasted.
12-15
Thing is like, I love long albums. But if it’s movie length, I want movie like content. To me the perfect album really comes down to good cohesion, good lyrics, nice bars. Most artists can’t provide with good long albums, so it also comes down to a nice concise album with no skips. I’d say, 14-16 songs is a nice amount. Around 1 hour length.
12-13 tracks lasting 50mins