Bloggerhythms

Because CDs possess a greater amount of space for music than other physical formats the people marketing them - be it the artist, the record company, or both - too often load their releases with unnecessary filler. I guess their thinking is, "Hey, we've got a lot of extra space available so there's no longer a need to keep the lesser tracks in a vault somewhere for possible use later. Let's just put it all out there." Because of this, CDs often play too long. Mostly, I don't need to hear an artist's unfinished demos or alternate takes they don't like but hope that we do. Most of the time there's a reason they landed on the cutting room floor. On the other hand, Portrait of a Legend 1951 - 1964 is an astounding thirty song compilation spanning Sam Cooke's entire career. The CD is over seventy-nine minutes long - meaning almost every available byte is used - and because all of the songs are worthy and wonderfull...