Why is the double album — once derided as a symbol of shaggy self-indulgence — suddenly making a comeback? zzzzaaaacccchhh reports
Photo-Illustration: by Vulture; Vinyl Records: Getty Images; Album Artwork Courtesy the Labels This article was featured in One Great Story, New York’s reading recommendation newsletter. Sign up here to get it nightly.
Another likely explanation is that the first year of the pandemic, with its unprecedented pause in live music, granted artists more time to devote to songwriting and recording — hence a surplus of new material. And because of lengthy promotional rollouts or delays in vinyl production, some albums that were recorded in 2020 or early 2021 weren’t released until 2022.
Marr, however, says he wanted to make his next album a double before the pandemic, because he yearned for “a bigger canvas.” The events of 2020 allowed him to immerse himself in recording more than usual. “My studio, which is on the top floor of an old factory on the outskirts of town, was completely empty,” Marr says. “This huge, enormous parking lot just had my car in it every day. So I had this stillness around me while I was making it.
Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers is certainly the kind of album that benefits from an intermission. Breathtakingly ambitious, the project unfolds like a marathon therapy session with two halves that both differ and speak with one another — Disc One emphasizes Lamar’s detail-rich storytelling, examining the artist’s ambivalent relationship with his own fame, while Disc Two is full of brooding and pained examinations of intergenerational trauma.
Because of these delays, Wilco opted to digitally release its double album Cruel Country in May — months ahead of a vinyl release. “I put in motion the idea that we wanted to finish this, not care about supply-chain issues, and not worry about having a physical release,” Jeff Tweedy told Aquarium Drunkard. Similarly, Lamar’s new album, priced at a steep $43, won’t be available on vinyl until August.
Curiously, the recent slate of double albums reminds me more of classic LP-era doubles than the overlong ones from the peak CD era. Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You summons the glorious, hazy sprawl of Exile on Main St. or Physical Graffiti. Cruel Country, which embraces Wilco’s country origins, is more akin to The Basement Tapes: a reminder that while double albums are sometimes about genre-spanning exploration, they can also zero in on a band’s roots.
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