Short Albums Are On The Comeback
In a world where 20-song albums and deluxe editions reign supreme, a handful of artists have begun to take a "less is more" approach. And we like it.
Tinashe ‘BB/ANG3L’ = 7 songs
Destin Conrad ‘SUBMISSIVE’ = 9 songs
Terrace Martin & Alex Isley ‘I Left My Heart In Ladera’ = 9 songs
Majid Jordan ‘Good People’ album = 9 songs
Four of our favorite projects to release this Fall have all had one thing in common. They’ve all clocked in at less than 10 songs.
In a recent interview with Bimma Williams of Amazon Music’s ‘Bars & Nuggets’, Tinashe talked about her conscious decision to make her album a 7-song experience. She wanted to make it succinct to allow people to focus and dive into the songs on a deeper level. And in turn, this will allow her to release another project quicker than giving people 20 songs at once, and making them wait 5 years for another long album. (Starts at 29:21)
Majid Jordan’s album is mellow and spiritual in tone – and tells a beautiful story in 9 songs. It’s a 10/10 (or should I say 9/9) album experience. Nothing more was needed – and shouldn’t that be how music is shared?
Cut the fat, get rid of the fluff.
If the story can be told in 30 minutes, why force an album to be 60 minutes instead? Tampa, FL native Destin Conrad took this same approach on his recently released ‘SUBMISSIVE’ album. The album is 9 songs total and clocks in at 22 minutes in length. Is that short? Absolutely. Could we have used a few more songs? For sure. But are we mad? Nope.
Short albums aren’t a new concept; however. Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ was 9 songs. Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ was 9 songs. Diana Ross’ ‘The Boss’ album was 8 songs.
Are short albums making a comeback? On one hand, we think so, and kind of hope so. We can appreciate our favorite artists delivering albums with no fluff more than giving us 20 songs just for the sake of releasing content and gaming the streaming system (more songs = more streams = better chart positions).
After all, the saying is quality over quantity for a reason.