Acts whose longer songs reliably tend to be their best work

Smashing Pumpkins
Pulp

Gershwin

Tolkien

Modest Mouse seems like a textbook answer here

genesis

Napalm Death

Hitler

Picasso

you suffer, and here's why

Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Ron Jeremy

Archive.

Neil Young

Early Fairport Convention ("Matty Groves;" "Tam-Lin;" "Percy's Song;" "Sailor's Life")?

Spiritualized

The Orb (but not the live stuff)

you suffer, and here's why

― imago, Tuesday, February 20, 2018 12:23 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

underrated post

Spiritualized is a really good answer!

Spacemen 3, Spiritualized, Oceansize, Pink Floyd (no? hell yes fuiud) etc etc

Underworld.

magma, obv

Low.

Their shortest songs are also reliably very good.

Stereolab
Autechre
Slowdive
Neu!
CAN

hard disagree on Stereolab
Neu! doesn't count
Pumpkins is a good one
Modest Mouse is questionable. they have a lot of 5-6 minute songs that go nowhere, but enough epics to make me think about it

Yes

Sweet Thing, Station To Station and Blackstar are Bowie's greatest achievements. All over 10 minutes

came here to say Neu!

Threads totally in character.

hard disagree on Stereolab

Weird Al Yankovic

Meatloaf?

The Necks

donna summer

Bardo Pond

built to spill

The Orb (but not the live stuff)

― El Tomboto, Tuesday, February 20, 2018 5:47 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Just came here to post this very thing. OTMbot.

lol was gonna post Magma but that's sort of a silly answer

I might add Gastr Del Sol.

Sonic Youth

Heroin (7.12)
European Son (7.46)
The Gift (8.19)
Sister Ray (17.27)
The Murder Mystery (8.54)
Oh! Sweet Nuthin (7.23)

Morton Feldman.

Roland Kayn

Led Zep

Kraftwerk

James Brown

Tangerine Dream of course.

Villalobos
Autopsy (tho their "long" stuff is usually only 4-5 mins)
and yeah Magma, even if lots of prog bands can say the same

Struggling to think of anyone I can get behind apart from bands like, say, VdGG where 'long songs' is their default setting. I don't think I'd agree with either Pulp or the Smashing Pumpkins. Sheffield: Sex City and Wicker Man are both classics but Seductive Barry? David's Last Summer? These are not among my favourite Pulp songs. With the Pumpkins I do love their sprawling epics but I like their concise rock/pop moments just as much.

I could have guessed who started this thread just by looking at the title, tbh!

Anyway, surely Super Furry Animals fit this thread, since 'Slow Life', 'Ice Hockey Hair' and 'Some Things Come From Nothing' are their three best songs.

The Fall - Words of Expectation, NWRA, spectre vs Rector, Smile, Garden, Tempo House, Blindness, 50 Year Old Man etc etc

King Crimson (i know we'll be split on this one)

Hm, maybe an overreach, I was thinking of Anonymous Collective and Jenny Ondioline more than Soop Groove #1.

― startled macropod (MatthewK), Wednesday, February 21, 2018 1:52 AM (ten hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that's true and even though i love them "outer bongolia" and "blue milk" and "refractions in the plastic pulse" and "caleidoscopic gaze" don't tower over the rest of their work in the same way that "jenny ondioline" does (for some people, not me). also i think an important criteria for this thread is that the songs are long to begin with, on record, and that legendary extended live versions of songs that are cherished by fans (i.e. "you made me realise" by mbv) don't count

Weird Al Yankovic

― direct to consumer online mattress brand (silby), Wednesday, February 21, 2018 1:57 AM (ten hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

now this is 100% OTM

Sonic Youth

― nate woolls, Wednesday, February 21, 2018 9:12 AM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hell yes, but I prefer the albums from washing machine and on, i know that's a minority opinion. murray street is my favorite by far, and my favorite sy song "rain on tin" is 8 minutes and hilariously features ~20 seconds of thurston singing at the beginning followed by 8 minutes of guitar heaven

Built to Spill... I think this comes down to Perfect from Now On vs. Keep it Like a Secret. again, live versions ("cortez the killer") don't count

King Crimson and any other prog rock bands do not count. if your default mode is long songs, i don't think you can qualify for this thread

Struggling to think of anyone I can get behind apart from bands like, say, VdGG where 'long songs' is their default setting. I don't think I'd agree with either Pulp or the Smashing Pumpkins. Sheffield: Sex City and Wicker Man are both classics but Seductive Barry? David's Last Summer? These are not among my favourite Pulp songs. With the Pumpkins I do love their sprawling epics but I like their concise rock/pop moments just as much.

― Gavin, Leeds, Wednesday, February 21, 2018 11:36 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I agree about short Pumpkins songs but when you think about their consensus fan favorites, most of them are epics. Or, nearly all of their epics are fan favorites, if not all of them: Soma, Silverfuck, Hummer, Starla, Porcelina, Ruby, X.Y.U., For Martha, The Aeroplane Flies High. all of those are beloved, and i'd add Glass and the Ghost Children which generally gets respect even from people that don't fuck with Machina or say it should've been a single album. shit, even United States from Zeitgeist is considered the one keeper from that record.

Pumpkins are the perfect band for this thread, because while they have many very popular short concise rock/pop songs, their ratio of beloved epics is higher than anyone else mentioned itt.

Roxy music

Popol Vuh

King Crimson have longer and shorter songs! I think it's fair for someone to say they prefer "Starless" or "Moonchild" to "Frame by Frame" or "Fallen Angel".

a comp of 10+ minute King Crimson tracks would be pretty fucking weird - "Moonchild", "The Devils Triangle", "Lizard", "Larks 1", "Fracture", and "Starless". don't think they did another long track unless you count "Larks 4"

btw I disagree with Can - I think a big chunk of their best/most well-known stuff tends to be on the shorter side.

Not thinking that David's Last Summer is one of Pulp's best songs is madness!

Same applies to 'Seductive Barry' ...

retract CAN

I think I had a short circuit and answered the question “which bands do you love that do long songs?”

Yeah Seductive Barry is great too

King Crimson and any other prog rock bands do not count. if your default mode is long songs, i don't think you can qualify for this thread

― flappy bird, Wednesday, February 21, 2018 12:52 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

KC have a ton of 5 minute songs

Jane's Addiction

Godspeed

Sleep

lmao

Incredible String Band arguably.

Yo La Tengo

james brown is the best answer so far.

yo la tengo is a good one, yeah. for me it's ratio of beloved epics. if basically all of your epics are fan favorites, this is your thread

Pumpkins are the perfect band for this thread, because while they have many very popular short concise rock/pop songs, their ratio of beloved epics is higher than anyone else mentioned itt.

― flappy bird, Wednesday, February 21, 2018 5:57 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The Cure is another example. They have a bunch of 3 minute pop songs, but many of the fan favorites go beyond the 6 minute mark.

Great example