The thing that kinda got me a little hot was when I realized this double CD release was a whopping 81 minutes.
I mean, c'mon, I had to shell out the money for a double disc set for an extra minute of music/talking? Just trim something somewhere.
I'm quite pedantic when it comes to album length, so that bothered me a bit as well. I could really live without some of the mini-songs, & you'd only need to cut one of them to make it a single CD. I would nominate Daniel's Vision &/or Lavinia's Confession, personally.
Don't get me wrong, I love Ayreon, but they are one of the biggest culprits of this. To me if you're going to do a double disc it should be at least 90 minutes long. Aside from the annoyance of having to go between discs there is also all those extra discs pressed that were completely unnecessary, it's just a bit wasteful.
With regards to "short" double albums, I think people only complain because of the format/medium. If CDs didn't exist, this Transitus would be a normal length double album on vinyl (think Pink Floyd's The Wall, which is just under 81 minutes anyway). Filling a double vinyl with about 20-ish minutes on each side is a pretty full double album, IMO, and anything between 80-95 minutes would be typical to me. Honestly, CDs don't get too much play by me anymore as most of my music listening happens through my phone (or my iPod at home), though I still have some CD-r wallets in my car every now and then, but when I listen to albums longer than a single CD, I will most likely used a digital format, just to listen to the whole thing in one go without having to change discs.
I'm not a vinyl collector or listening, but I can only imagine how people who complain about having to change discs for a "short" double album might react having to flip TWO discs, and change them halfway through the album, just to listen to 80-ish minutes of music.
Since The Theory Of Everything, it seems like Arjen is focused on creating albums with vinyl in mind, which is why TTOE was collected into four epics. The Source, likewise, was divided into four "Chronicles" of about 21-22 minutes in length. So even if Transitus ended up being just under 80 minutes in length, I bet Arjen would have put it on two CDs, because it would have been on two vinyls anyway, to fit the story anyway, as there is a plot-related gap between "Seven Days, Seven Nights" and "Condemned Without A Trial".
On the up side, at least the album is longer than 80 minutes, and warrants two CDs, unlike some recent double albums that have been UNDER 80 minutes. Now *that* grinds my gears.
-Marc.