It really depends on the actual double album, and whether what you have to say can be compressed into a single album or not. To be honest, with the development of the CD, (with the possibility of being able to listen to 80 minutes of music on one device - a standard set to be able to include Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony on one disc), such discussions and debates became somewhat moot.
In any case some double albums, such as the outstanding 'White' album of the Beatles' require the space afforded by the double album format in order to realise its artistic potential fully. (Indeed, on that very topic, I seem to recall reading that 'Sgt Pepper's' had originally been conceived, or was initially envisaged, as a double-album - the stunning artwork alone would seem to indicate that this might have been a vague possibility at some stage, but shocked reality, in the form of studio executives horrified at the escalating costs, decided to curtail this grand vision. I have long felt that Sgt Pepper's is a sort of double album manqué; it reminds me of those glorious capital cities one sees in countries shorn of their empires…..amazing, but somehow lacking the sort of hinterland required to sustain this grand vision.)
Granted, there were a lot of self-indulgent and bloated musical offerings in the 1970s, some of which were released in the form of double albums, but, so what? Most of what is forgettable has been forgotten, and, at the very least, we could rest assured that however self-indulgent the music, it was written by those who performed it, an assurance I would not be able to offer with the same degree of certainty today. Moreover, some great music was written then.
And, Noel, seriously: How many kids today even know what an album - let alone the artistic extravagance called the double album - actually is? It has gone the way of the dodo, and the CD……
Noel, this is a dialogue with those who actually care about what music means, those who agonised over lyrics, who debated melody, and who saw significance in the (often articulate and occasionally very brave) public and political stances taken by some musicians. To be frank, Noel, I am not sure that this is a dialogue that it is possible to have with many of the music-downloading demographic these days. Tempus fugit, and all that.
