Double album
A
double album is an
audio album of sufficient length that two units of the medium in which it is sold (especially
records and
compact discs) are necessary to contain the entirety of it.
The double album was a much more common format during the
vinyl LP era than during the
CD era. A single LP had two sides, each of which could be no longer than half an hour (and sound quality was better when less music was crammed onto each side.) Most LPs were between 30 and 45 minutes in length. A single CD can be as long as about 80 minutes. Hence, many old two LP albums have been re-released as a single CD.
Recording artists often think of double albums as a single piece artistically; however, there are exceptions such as
Pink Floyd's
Ummagumma, one
live album and one studio record packaged together, and
OutKast's
Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, consisting of one practical solo album by each member of the
hip-hop duo. Particularly in the compact disc era, artists sometimes will release albums with bonus discs, featuring studio out-takes, alternate mixes, or other material that would not typically be suitable album material but which would be of interest to fans (e.g.,
The Beatles'
Let It Be... Naked, which featured a bonus disc of studio chatter and jamming entitled
Fly on the Wall).
The first ever double album was
Benny Goodman's Live at Carnegie Hall, the famous jazz concert of
1938, released by
Columbia Records in
1950. The first rock double album, and first
studio double album, ever released is believed to have been
Bob Dylan's
Blonde on Blonde in
1966, also on Columbia, although at the same time
Frank Zappa and his
Mothers of Invention band were at work on the double album
Freak Out!, released two months after
Blonde on Blonde. The first rap double album was believed to have been
DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince's
He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper.
Since then, the double album format has been more often used for
live albums for which material is often plentiful. The format is also frequently used for
concept albums.
There were only a few examples during the
vinyl-
LP era of a
sesquialbum, i.e., a one-and-a-half album.
Johnny Winter released a three-sided album on two 12-inch discs, with the flip side of the second disc being blank. The vinyl release of
Pavement's
Wowee Zowee also had only three sides of music. More recently,
Boards of Canada's 2002 album,
Geogaddi, is a two-and-a-half album (a triple album, but with one side of vinyl left uncut). The
Monty Python album
Matching Tie and Handkerchief was originally issued with two concentric grooves with different programs on side B.
Elvis Costello and
The Clash (amongst other 1980s acts) would sometimes release early pressings of their albums with extra material on a 45 rpm
single.
Leonard Cohen wanted to do the same with his album
Recent Songs but Columbia rejected the idea. In
1993,
Alice in Chains made a limited-edition vinyl release of
Jar of Flies/Sap, which was a "sesqui-double-
EP". The album contained 2 EPs of music, but only took up three sides of the double album; the fourth side was an etching of the band's name.
The
triple album contains three units of the medium; the first one of note in the rock era was
George Harrison's
All Things Must Pass. Packages with more units than that are generally called
boxed sets.
In the late
1980s, the compact disc, which can carry more music than a typical vinyl long play record, became the most common format on which to sell music. Albums which were originally packaged as double records are often sold on a single compact disc, such as the aforementioned
Blonde on Blonde,
The Who's
Tommy,
The Rolling Stones'
Exile on Main St., and
Prince's
1999 (though not in all cases, because it may not fit on one CD, such as the Beatles'
White Album and Pink Floyd's
The Wall). Also, albums of the compact disc era are often longer than those of previous decades, and are sometimes packaged on two records if vinyl copies are produced. In general, an album is usually referred to as a double album when its audio content requires two units of the prominent format of its time period. Thus, double albums are less prominent in the compact disc era than in previous decades.
The concept of a double album is one that sparks much critical debate. Some see them as a testament to a band's creativity although they are also seen as self indulgent and bloated. It is frequent that double albums come at a time in a band's career when they have achieved much success and possibly believe that what everything they do will be "gold" and fans will buy it. Many double albums are released to much divide in critical opinion and in hindsight the question "would this be better as a single album?" is asked. Despite this criticism, many double albums are met with praise or seen as classics some time after their release.
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List of double albums
