2. "It's not just these days, it's been like this forever. It's just that no..." In response to Reply # 1
... *attention spans* are as short as ever, so albums tend to not have staying power if they extend past like 45 minutes or so (that's sort of an arbitrary number but an educated guess as to where the threshold may be for a lot of people).
I support the shorter album format, always have. A majority of my favorite albums are 13 songs or less, and well under an hour. The only risk being taken is if one of 7 songs is awful it could spoil it.
3. "Artists would have to release multiple 'albums' or this variety" In response to Reply # 0
within the year for this to be sustainable, right? There can't be too many singles from an album for only 4-5 tracks and I don't see how you can reliably tour for an 'album' that's this short as well.
If artists release 2 or 3 of these albums within the year and each album is strong, then I'm all with it if this indeed becomes a trend.
I do wonder if artist that want to fulfill contracts with labels they don't care for will release 'albums' like this just to kill of their label obligations.
"Sean sparks like John Starks, nah, Sean ball like John Wall" - Rest In Power Forever Sean Price.