Best double (and multi-disc) studio albums?

I’m not entirely sure if this will be right up your alley...🤔 though you might have already given some of these a spin😉

Jonathan Wilson - Tool

Tool - Fear Inoculum

Michael Kiwanuka – Michael Kiwanuka

Queens of the Stone Age – Songs for the Deaf / Coldplay

Coldplay – Everyday Life

Dennis Hall41 said:Does anyone have any recommendations for a truly great double album released in the last few years? I can't help but wonder if this whole format is just slowly dying out...

I actually just finished downloading and listening to the Colosseum - Reunion Concerts release today—it’s a recent reissue, though the original recordings go all the way back to 1995. It features two full concerts on there, and honestly, it was fantastic...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colo...union_Concerts

Mark Cruz15 said:I actually just downloaded...

Downloaded?? Uh oh. Did you "download" it or did you actually buy it?😉>

Look, lemonzoo, they’re constantly breathing down our necks about not mentioning those borderline illegal things on the forum 😬 Could you maybe just get straight to the point next time and say you just happened to listen to or watch something? Or even just go with, "it was right there in front of me." I mean, honestly, we don't really need to know how you stumbled upon it for a review, right? 😁

'aviary' by Julie Holter is a killer double album 👍

Wait, so are Trumpet Fanfare and Songs for the Deaf double albums, or just doubles on the vinyl release?
Anyway, fine—let's just say anything over 55 minutes counts as a double album for this thread.

Actually, I totally blanked on a massive one, and honestly, I’m being a pain to everyone—God knows it—but King Krule's The OOZ would definitely be an archetypal double album based on length and scale alone.

@lemozoo Thanks for the input, but live sets and compilations shouldn't really count here.

absolutely ☕

Pink Floyd - The Wall
No need for an explanation here.

Azra - Filigranski plocnici
A collection filled with plenty of great tracks that don't get nearly enough credit.

Bob Dylan - The Basement Tapes.
A gathering of songs that, for one reason or another, didn't find a home on his earlier studio albums.

Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti; it’s a live set, but it’s damn good, so I had to mention it.

Uther Pendragon was one of those gritty, garage-psych outfits from back in the day out of the San Carlos area near San Francisco. They never actually managed to put out a single or a full-length record during their run—mostly because their tracks were just too long for the era, and there were plenty of similar bands floating around at the time. It feels like a bit of a tragedy they missed out then, especially since this newly released triple compilation of remastered demos is honestly fantastic.👍

San Francisco Earthquake

If nobody’s brought up Disintegration by The Cure yet, I am—honestly probably their absolute peak, and for me, Plainsong and Prayers for Rain are just untouchable.

Hex Enduction Hour really should have been a double album—it’s easily one of the top 5 or 6 peaks in The Fall's massive catalog.
Maybe the most vital cornerstone of that aggressive 90s indie-rock guitar sound holds some absolute gems, like these:

That manic 7-minute stretch of Fortress/Deer Park:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7Dljw...s&index=5&t=0s

The genius opening of The Classical:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZZZjD...s&index=2&t=0s

That classic infectious, groovy Fall moment—heavy on those 60s garage vibes Mark always loved—those catchy garage bursts were always their bread and butter, and on HEH you get a killer The Jawbone and The Air Rifle:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7LI_zA...s&index=3&t=0s

And finally, one of their all-time legendary moments, the immortal hip Priest:

Dennis Hall41 said:Hex Enduction Hour

That’s not even a double album

It should be—it clocks in at exactly 60 minutes. Wasn't vinyl usually capped at around 54-55 minutes?

Dennis Hall41 said:Wasn't vinyl limited to about 54 or 55 minutes?

Not even close. I’ve owned at least three or four records where a single side clocked in at a full 30 minutes—I actually remember one album hitting 32 minutes on one side. Take Oldfield's "Amarok," for instance; the whole thing is exactly 60 minutes, split into two perfectly equal 30-minute sides.

So, I just stumbled onto some info claiming a record can hold 40 minutes (!) per side. Honestly, I have zero clue how much that would wreck the sound quality.
Plus, I don't think I've ever seen an LP longer than 55 minutes that wasn't a double album. You got any examples besides Hex Enduction Hour?

Arthur Brown6 said:No way. I’ve definitely had records where a single side ran for at least 30 minutes—I actually remember one album having a side that hit 32. Take Oldfield's "Amarok," for instance; that whole thing is exactly 60 minutes, split perfectly into 30-minute sides.

Hmm, I'm no audiophile—not really my thing—but maybe Oldfield's stuff is just more compressed? Like, would a soul record even handle that much music per side?

Edit: here's a helpful link if you want to dive deeper into this topic
https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...-fit-on-an-lp-

Costello's Get Happy album from 1980 features 10 tracks per side, and even though they aren't particularly long, the whole record ends up feeling pretty thin because of it.
That's actually what Stephen Street mentioned during Danny Baker's show about pop albums, which I shared a link to earlier.

Interesting thought. With all those grooves packed in there, you're probably getting way too much compression—which I bet messes with the low-end bass response, and that’s a real shame for an album rooted in soul and R&B.

Dennis Hall41 said:It should be—runs exactly 60 minutes.

It was originally released on one LP.

Even the disintegration wasn't quite complete until that 2010 reissue...