Bands aren't obligated to write longer albums just because the technology allows it. I'd rather get a kickass punch in the gut of an album instead of an album with way too much fluff. Shorter albums are just fine.
Of course they're not obligated to write longer albums just because technology allows them to. That's not the point. If you are happy with a shorter album, great. But I know that as a fan, *I* kind of feel ripped off. Great if it's a solid 35 minutes. But if they could do a solid 35 minutes, then they could do a solid 45, or a solid 45 with an extra pretty good 10 minutes tacked on.
I really like the clips I've heard so far. But those are only clips. Given that there are a bunch of sub-3:30 songs, I'm guessing that as complete songs, some are going to feel underdeveloped. And that's a shame because it shouldn't be hard to think a bit more about whether a solo can be lengthened just a bit to add more build and flow, or whether a short intro can be added to set the mood for a song, or whether the outro can be extended just a bit so the listener doesn't feel like the song cuts off prematurely, or whether a short bridge might be a nice transition somewhere in the song. If they do a few of those things and take just a bit more time to do one more "pretty good" song, they silence the criticism by having an album that
at least is over 45 minutes. But, again, putting out a 35 minute album just does not feel like enough effort was made, and it foolishly opens them up for the criticism that they really can't write a full album's worth of material without Tate. Yeah, it's a dumb criticism on a lot of levels, but it's out there and it would have been SO easy to avoid had they taken the time to try to avoid it.
If the album ends up being just great from start to finish, cool. If it feels underdeveloped and feels like the songs are too short, I'm not going to be happy, and I'm not sure I'll devote much attention to the band going forward if the trend continues. There are very few albums of that lenght containing songs of that length that have really had any kind of long-lasting impact, and I can't really think of any off the top of my head that have come out in the last 10-15 years. Maybe as the clips might indicate, this is one of those exceptional albums that does the trick despite being so short. I hope so. But we'll see come release date.