Double Feature

Ten of the best double albums: records that asked for four sides and mostly earned them. The set runs roughly in release order from the 1960s to the 1990s, with Physical Graffiti at the end.

Some sprawl on purpose. The Beatles' White Album is four writers pulling in different directions, and Exile on Main St. was cut partly in the basement of a rented villa in the south of France and sounds like it. Blonde on Blonde, made in Nashville, was one of the first double albums in rock. Others are one big push. Songs in the Key of Life is Stevie Wonder at full stretch, and London Calling packs rockabilly, reggae, ska and soul into a record the Clash insisted be sold for the price of a single album. Zen Arcade and Double Nickels on the Dime both came out on SST in July 1984 and turned hardcore into something long and personal; the Minutemen made theirs a double partly in answer to Hüsker Dü's. Sign o' the Times is what Prince kept from three abandoned projects. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness put 28 songs on two CDs in 1995. Physical Graffiti closes the set: eight new songs plus outtakes from Led Zeppelin's earlier sessions.

If you only have time for one, play London Calling. It is the double album that justifies all 19 of its songs.