It’s been a while – and since the big news for a lot of people this week was the announcement that Sleep will be playing NZ shows next year (for the first time ever) I thought, in honour of the album Dopesmoker we could look at four single-track albums; album-length songs. So here goes…

1. Sleep, Dopesmoker

Sit back, relax, unwind…

Sit back, relax, unwind…

2. Pharoah Sanders, Black Unity

Okay, well it’s two sides if you have the vinyl – but I knew this first as a CD; one track – a single piece. It’s composed as a ‘piece’ too, one track – and what a killer piece of music and line-up. For the longest time I would mispronounce Pharoah Sanders’ name, calling him Pharoah Saunders. Weird.

3. Jethro Tull, Thick As A Brick

I first heard the shortened, extracted ‘song’ as part of a compilation – so what a revelation to move from the Greatest Hits to individual albums and find things like this, and also A Passion Play. Love it.

4. The Necks, Drive By

Most of the albums by The Necks feature just one long song, one single piece of music that is around one hour in length. I was blown away by seeing The Necks, some fifteen years ago or so – and instantly sold on their sound. I’ve bought and found everything by the band. But maybe this is the one where it fully sunk in, the one I’ve listened to almost the most. The one, certainly, I’d first recommend – so easy to like as it slides from background to slowly creep in volume and intensity. Magical group of musicians, one of my all-time favourite bands. Amazing. Every time.

5. Brian Eno, Neroli

Subtitled “Thinking Music” Neroli is an album from the 1990s – but I really only caught onto it recently when several Eno albums were reissued. As with The Necks I could have picked a handful of Eno single-track albums (including this year’s brand new one). But Neroli was a lovely surprise for me. So if you haven’t heard it yet, or haven’t heard it in a while it might be a lovely surprise for you.

[These five tracks will take you well into the weekend – or might be there to pick off across the weekend. But I got hooked on the theme. I love a good long, single-track album. And here are five favourites].