These 7 overly long works break every convention and prove that XXL formats work.
The album is dead, yes yes! We’ve noticed it – and the majority of music listening via streaming services naturally fuels this theory. But there is another way. A few unbending examples of XXL plates.
1. Jack White can’t just play guitar on tin cans
Jack White can’t just play guitar on tin cans and make football stadiums sing. With his label Third Man Records, the man is also rolling out the record label business. At the forefront of many nerdy ideas: a vinyl album for the anniversary. THE FIRST THREE YEARS OF BLUE SERIES SINGLES ON ONE LP (2012) is the title and 57 songs can be heard. How does that work? With three revolutions per minute.
2. 40 Reasons to Hate Anal Cunt
The US grindcore aesthetes Anal Cunt take a similar approach. Their album title from 1996 also makes it clear where it’s going: 40 MORE REASONS TO HATE US, with wonderful titles like “I Hope You Get Deported”, “Johnny Violent Getting His Ass Kicked By Morrissey” and “Van Full Of Retards”. The longest song lasts 1:25, the shortest eight seconds.
3. Taylor Swift and her Tortured Poets
The present can also be overlong. Taylor Swift’s sophisticated work from 2024, for example: THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT. If you include the four acoustic bonus tracks, the ANTHOLOGY album comprises a total of 35 songs.
4. The Magnetic Fields and 69 Love Songs
Stephin Merritt can only smile wearily when faced with such figures. The US songwriter released a triple album with his band The Magnetic Fields in 1999: 69 LOVE SONGS, the programmatic title. Originally there were supposed to be a few more. Merritt had been sitting in a bar listening to songs from Stephen Sondheim films when the idea came to him: a record with 100 songs. In the end there were 69. Merritt even played the entire album live a few times, in the original order, over two evenings.
5. Andreas Dorau and the 1000 song legend
The song “Mutti, I and The Sun” by Fehle Fahnen can be heard for a full two seconds on the legendary ZICKZACK SOMMERHITS 81. Behind the flag name was none other than Andreas Dorau, on the eve of his iconic space flight from Jupiter down to the earth where we humans live. Whether launched by the music press or really true, there was a rumor circulating that Dorau was planning an album with 1000 songs. Unfortunately, it was never realized; Dorau probably felt like Merritt did when faced with 100: That’s just too much.
6. Physical Limits on Vinyl
From a purely physical perspective, a vinyl album side is of course limited in terms of playing time; classically it is around 20 minutes. All the more interesting is how far this logical limit can be stretched. Bob Dylan manages half an hour on the second side of DESIRE (1976), Brian Eno’s DISCREET MUSIC (1975) does that on both sides. John Cage’s EMPTY WORDS PART IV (1987) even clocks in at over 37 minutes each. “Exclusive Radio Shack Extra-Length Recording” is written on a record by orchestra leader Arthur Fiedler. The friendly gentleman with a mustache and baton is serious, his album title 90 MINUTES WITH ARTHUR FIEDLER AND THE BOSTON POPS is to be taken literally: an hour and a half of music is squeezed into two pages, in the truest sense of the word.
7. The greatest record in the world
In 2014, probably the largest record adorned the roof of the multi-purpose hall The Forum in Inglewood, California. The long player measured 124 meters and was made in two weeks from 25 tons of printed vinyl with the motif: HOTEL CALIFORNIA by the Eagles, who played several shows in the hall. The running speed: 17 miles per hour, which corresponds to one revolution per minute. Take that, Jack White!