30 Albums With Four or Less Songs

Popular music was founded on the notion of the three-minute song. Part of that was for practical reasons: Early vinyl records couldn’t fit much more on a side. Plus, few radio stations were eager to give valuable airtime to only a handful of songs each hour.

But as you’ll see in the below list of 30 Albums With Four or Less Songs, as the LP format took shape, artists were less reluctant to limit their music to such pre-determined time constraints.

Certain genres were more enthusiastic about pursuing the boundless appeal of their songs. Prog and jazz particularly opened new horizons to their artists, with many consistently stretching material to side-long works. The best of these records erase thoughts of padding for the sake of filling out albums; 20 minutes go by quickly in the hands of these experts.

READ MORE: Top 30 Album-Closing Songs

It’s no surprise several artists show up more than once, though the list narrows the records to those by respective giants in their field, like Yes and Miles Davis, with mention of serial long-players in the entries. (Brevity was rarely up for discussion in the most risk-taking and forward-thinking fusion and krautrock records of the ’70s.)

Note: The below albums were compiled using their original track listings. Over the years, many of these LPs were altered with bonus tracks or, in many cases, songs originally split into two parts because of vinyl side restrictions were combined into one seamless track on CD issues.