A few days ago I wrote an article about incredible albums that would be better if they simply didn't go on for so long. These eight albums I've listed here today have the opposite problem: they're maddeningly brief. The term "long play record" can be used very loosely to describe these albums.
1. Misfits - Earth A.D./Wolfs Blood (1983)
Walk Among Us, the first album released by New Jersey horror-punk legends the Misfits, comes in at a mere 25 minutes, but by the next year, the band outdid itself with its second LP Earth A.D./Wolfs Blood, which is a blistering 15 minutes long. The album was later reissued with three more tracks, but it still comes in at just 21 minutes.
2. Descendents - Milo Goes to College (1982)
Southern California punk band the Descendents may be one of the biggest influences of pop punk bands like Green Day and Blink-182, but neither of those bands has ever released an album as hardcore or as brief as Milo Goes to College, the Descendents' 15-song, 22-minute debut album.
3. Vivian Girls - Vivian Girls (2008)
Brooklyn noise pop trio Vivian Girls may have broken up earlier this year, but at least we'll always have the music to come back to, and with a 21-minute debut album, coming back to the music doesn't take up very much time.
4. Minor Threat - Out of Step (1983)
Minor Threat's entire discography was compiled in 1989 on the Complete Discography album, which is a single CD with just 47 minutes of music. Nine of the songs on this album come from Out of Step, Minor Threat's sole studio album, which is just 21 minutes in length.
5. Iceage - New Brigade (2011)
After 10 years of so-called "post-punk revival" from bands like The Killers, Interpol, and the National, the true spirit of post-punk returned in 2011 with Danish quartet Iceage, whose debut album New Brigade takes hardcore energy and gothic atmosphere and spits it back at us for 24 minutes.
6. Annoying Customer - Intervals (2011)
I mentioned Annoying Customer in my article on bands with small discographies, and the only LP the band released in its 10+ years was Intervals in 2011, a 23-minute pop-punk masterpiece.
7. Minutemen - The Punch Line (1981)
Minutemen bassist Mike Watt claimed that the name of his band was a reference to both a '60s anti-communist group and colonial American militias, but had nothing to do with the short length of the band's songs. The name is extremely fitting though, as only two of the songs on the Minutemen's first LP The Punch Line even break the one-minute mark, resulting in a 15-minute album with 18 songs.
8. Fox Reactions - Outlier (2012)
The shortest album I've ever heard comes from a band called Fox Reactions from Elizabeth, NJ, whose debut Outlier consists of 10 bizarrely but brilliantly structured pop-punk songs in a blinding 12 minutes. If you need something to do while waiting in line at the grocery store, give this album a listen.
