Your Album Is Too Long

Cut the fat off of your album.

Nobody wants to listen to all of that.

If you are a mainstream artist working under a major label, you are likely to lack a sense of quality control.  Either that, or the people around you consistently fail to tell you no.  Either way, your newest album that came out is too long.

It’s way too long. Kanye’s album is way too long.  Drake’s album is way too long.  Thugger’s album is way too long.  NBA Youngboy’s album is way too long. Migos’s album is way too long. Every deluxe and reissue of an album that came out this year is too long. The vast majority of music listeners do not have 90 min in succession to listen to your album from start to finish.  Most people do not even make it past the 5th track of an album when they first listen to it.  But you already know this.  Stream trolling brings the numbers in, so why not cash in and leave the entire cutting room floor on the album and call it a day?

I’ll tell you why.  You’re at a point in your career now where you’ve become incredibly lazy. Bloated albums are lazy albums.  If half of the album doesn’t need to be on the album, why would you have it drag down the rest of the album’s flow?  Now you’re sitting there all gloss eyed costing the label repeat streams because you didn’t want to go over it with a fine toothed comb from the very beginning.

When was the last time you listened to CLB all the way through?  When was the last time that you listened to Donda all of the way through?  When was the last time that you listened to Punk all of the way through?  When was the last time any of these artists even listened to their own albums all of the way through? I’m going to assume not since it came out.  Even then, I’m not convinced that the average music listener even finished listening to it on release day. You are wasting labor. You are wasting capital. You are wasting time. Cut your albums down, or be prepared to justify the length.

Of course there were great albums that came out this year.  In fact, almost every artist this year, mainstream and underground, has released their best material yet in their entire musical journey. We were absolutely overwhelmed with incredible music this year, many of which have been large and lengthy releases.  However a long album isn’t always a bloated album, and bloated albums bloat discographies.  I don’t like empty calories.  You don’t like empty calories. So do not keep feeding your audience empty calories and act surprised when they think that you fell off.