I know it doesn’t sound like a tech article but it is!
Man as someone who named themselves Album because i am a fan of Albums as a piece of art - I do NOT agree. Illmatic is one of the best albums ever made, no challenge - but it’s an odd take to try to frame it as one of the last. Super narrow view. I’m not even entirely convinced that Albums are “dead” though they’re certainly less popular than they once were. It’s also important to remember that LP/Albums were not always popular either.
These gaslight articles are made by trash writers.
As an Illmatic fan who’s jaded with the streaming landscape, I was ready for some interesting insights into how things have changed but this article was pointless. It was celebrating Illmatic, but the actual argument about technology made no sense.
People aren’t excited for Beyonce/Taylor Swift’s albums to drop because they’re albums. They’re excited to get a large collection of new music. People will always want a collection of music from their favourite artists to drop, and call it whatever you want but that’s all an album is. And Illmatic is one of my favourites of all time, but it’s such a weird and arbitrary place to stop ‘good albums’ at. So many classic albums have come out since 1994, even within hip-hop if you want to be that narrow
Counterpoints:
To Pimp a Butterfly - Kendrick Lamar
The Rising Tide - Fort Minor
The Black Parade - My Chemical Romance
Wretched and Divine - Black Veil Brides
Lincoln Park’s entire discography
Natural Causes - Skylar Grey
Endgame
Appeal To Reason - Rise Against
Eminem’s entire discography (Revival excluded)
Oh my heart - mother mother
Fallen - Evenescence
The Search - NF
Carolus Rex - Sabaton
Amorphous - Icon for Hire
Goodbye and Good Riddance - Juice WRLD
What distinguishes a good album from a mixtape (which is what the article was essentially describing when it said albums where dead) is in a good album there is a central theme (be that a story, emotion or simply a repeated refrain) the songs flow into each other each building on the last, a good album also has a good opening and closing track that introduce or resolve all the tension in the album. It is true many people don’t listen to albums from cover to cover anymore, but those who truly love music do because most of the time it is the best way to enjoy it
Reclaimer by Shadow of Intent is one of my personal favorite examples of a well put together album, and that I love to listen through from beginning to end.
