3 Great Triple Albums That Prove Less Isn’t Always More

The triple album isn’t rare, but it’s uncommon enough to occupy a unique space in rock history. And depending on your view, it’s either ambitious or self-indulgent. Three albums in one isn’t easy to get right. So I want to highlight three great triple albums that disprove the cliché that less is more.

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‘Twilight Override’ by Jeff Tweedy

If this were the 1970s, an artist dropping a triple album wouldn’t be such a shock. But this is the era of short video clips, short attention spans, and streaming singles. But Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy quietly rages against this impatience with a gorgeous 30-song collection. It’s a celebration of many things, but mostly Tweedy’s desire to teach the world how to be creative one song at a time. “One Tiny Flower” opens Twilight Override and feels like the perfect metaphor for the moment. A small flower, stubborn, wild, breaking through a crack in the concrete. Like 30 songs, when it’s a struggle to get people to listen to just one. Other standout tracks include the spoken word “Parking Lot”, “Out In The Dark”, “Lou Reed Was My Babysitter”, and “This Is How It Ends”. So how does this end? Tweedy ends his triple album with “Enough”.   

‘Europe ’72’ by Grateful Dead

Europe ’72 documents the Grateful Dead’s two-month European tour in 1972. It became one of their most commercially successful albums and ignited a live obsession among fans. I won’t call them a cult, but the Deadheads who have followed, taped, and debated bootlegs can thank the Grateful Dead’s live triple album for its movement. And for good reason. It was the last Grateful Dead album to feature keyboardist and co-founding member Ron “Pigpen” McKernan. Also, Jerry Garcia’s playing is effortless, burning countless improvisations that many musicians spend hours trying to hone in a recording studio. The album closer, the stirring “Morning Dew”, offers everything to love about this band.

‘All Things Must Pass’ by George Harrison

George Harrison was famously kept in check by The Beatles’ primary songwriters, Paul McCartney and John Lennon. On one hand, it’s hard to argue with tunes written by Lennon and McCartney. However, Harrison is responsible for several of the Fab Four’s most beloved songs:  “Here Comes The Sun”, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, and “Something”. So it’s fittingly ironic that All Things Must Pass is widely viewed as one of the best albums by an ex-Beatle. The album opens with a Harrison and Bob Dylan co-write, “I’d Have You Anytime”. Harrison had connected with Dylan’s pastoral vibes in Bearsville and Dylan’s easy jam sessions with The Band. The Beatles, like all things, did pass. And here, Harrison sounds free, searching, with an abundance of songs both intimate and ambitious.

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