Goodbye Thing, You Sing Too Long

I used to wonder why anyone would bother recording a track that went on beyond five or six minutes. In recent years though I've found a few favourites. The list below will discuss some of these 'long songs,' those which run for more than eight minutes and in some cases, more than ten.

Galaxy of Emptiness, Beth Orton (from Trailer Park)
The first time I heard this I didn't think much of it other than 'waste of time'. It took another few listens for me to decide that not only did the song definitely have a point, but it was one of my favourite Beth Orton tracks. It's the best thing on Trailer Park, next to She Cries Your Name and the rhythm of the strings sounds very much like an inhale/exhale pattern. I also like the lyrics: 'could you please knock me off my feet for awhile?'

Spiders (Kidsmoke), Wilco (from A Ghost Is Born)
Again, another track I had to hear a few times. But it's addictive. It switches between a basic guitar pattern, with some minimal and nonsensical lyrics such as 'spiders are singing in the salty breeze, spiders are filling out tax returns' and eventually the guitar section changes into a riff with a heavy, definite rhythm behind it. It doesn't seem as though it goes for ten minutes.

Viorar Vel Til Loftarasa and Olsen Olsen, Sigur Ros (from Agaetis Byrjun)
I find this album great background music, when I'm in the mood for it. Each song is quite lengthy and they tend to drift into each other, so there are no definite boundaries between them anyway. These two are some of the highlights (along with Staralfur). The piano part of Viorar is especially beautiful, coupled with the climactic part when the whole orchestra kicks in. It also has a pretty good video clip which I've seen on Rage once or twice.

Eight Ball, Underworld (I only have it on a best of album)
I don't know why I like Underworld. I don't like much other music of this type and the music I do like from the electronica genre seems to feature stronger lyrics and melody than other electronica stuff (Crazy English Summer by Faithless, or Everything But the Girl, or Orbital, etc). This song has amusing lyrics but again the changes between the sections also tend to be affecting. All of Underworld's stuff is quite lengthy... I also like Two Months Off, Dinosaur Adventure 3D and Born Slippy.